Paper Wrapped Chicken

I have not posted on my blog for a good four months!

Well, the reason is because I have started a wonderful new job and have been really busy with work lately :)

Here is to start off my first posting after four months.

I have always loved paper wrapped chicken but the amount of oil used to fry it plus the way the oil swims around the wrapped packages just makes me put this dish to the furthest end of my list :P

Ever since I have started using Happycall pans, it makes a lot of oily dishes suddenly seems healthy enough to give it a go again due to the low amount of oil used!

Thus, I decided to see how the paper wrapped chicken dish would turn out using Happycall pan to fry. The results - taste as good minus the oil! Yeah!!!

Here is the recipe and we will definitely be making more of this as my dear hubby finished more than 8 packages at a go and wanted more!

Ingredients:
½ Chicken, approx. 1/2 kg (1 lb)
Oil for frying
Grease-proof paper (baking paper)

Marinade For Chicken
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Light soya sauce
1 tbsp Dark soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
1 tbsp Ginger juice
1 tbsp Cornflour
1 tbsp Sesame oil

Directions:
1. Cut, clean and wash the chicken. Cut into approximately 12 -15 serving pieces.
Marinate and cover with cling wrap and placed it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

2. Cut the grease-proof paper into approx. 17cm (7 in) squares.

3. Take a sheet of paper and brush one side with oil. Turn a corner towards you and place a piece of chicken at the corner nearest you. Fold up this corner to cover the chicken, then fold the left and right corners to cover the chicken also. Bring the remaining corner down and tuck in to make a neat package. Repeat with the remaining chicken and paper.

4. Heat the oil in the happycall pan. When the oil is hot, bring the heat to medium-low. Put the packages into the oil and deep-fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Scoop the packages out.

6. Place the packages on a serving platter and serve immediately.

Yakitori Chicken Meatballs

My son loves meatballs and in order to get him to eat more meat plus enjoying his meals I really need to be creative when it comes to cooking for my little one. :)

I noticed that he loves satay as he feels so grown up holding the satay stick and so far, he has impressed me with the amount of satay he could eat at a go - 6 sticks!

After looking through my recipe collections, I've decided to make the Yakitori Chicken Meatballs on skewers! The yakitori sauce is a little sweet so that would certainly appeal to his taste plus I get to string in some vegetables too :P That sounds wonderful enough for me!

I did not make the Yakitori Sauce from scratch as I do not want to stock more stuff in my pantry. I used a store bought Yakitori Sauce and it was simply delicious! Too bad my helper threw away the bottle before I could snap a picture of it but no worries, I'll be getting another bottle soon and will update this blog with the picture.

This is really easy to make and we made pretty good size meat balls and yields 13 sticks.

Yakitori Chicken Meatballs

Yields 13 sticks
Using Happy Ocher Pan

Ingredients

400g Minced Chicken meat
1 small Green Capsicum; sliced
1 small Red Capsicum, sliced.
2 inch Ginger, grated to extract juice
Bamboo Skewkers (soaked in water for at least 6 hours)

Marinate for the Chicken

1 Egg (whisked)
½ cup Bread crumbs (I used Korean bread crumbs)
2 tsps Corn Flour
2 tsps Plain Flour

½ tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Light Soya Sauce
1 Tbsp Yakitori Sauce (store bought)
2 inches Ginger grated
Dash of Pepper

Methods

1. Marinate the chicken overnight or at least 4 hours
   
2. Use your hands to scrunch the meat, take it up and slap it onto the mixing bowl This will make the meatball really "Q".
   
3. Roll the meat mixture into small balls
   
4. Boil a saucepan of water and squeeze the ginger juice out of the grated ginger into the boiling water
   
5. Place the chicken meat balls in the boiling water for approximately 7mins or cook till the meat balls change colour and float to the surface.
   
6. Scoop it out and set it aside on kitchen paper towels.
   
7. Thread the chicken meat balls into the skewers; add capsicum slices in between the meat balls.
   
8. Brush the yakitori sauce onto the meat balls before placing it into the Happy Call Pan.
   
9. Pour about 4 tbsps of the yakitori sauce into the pan before placing the meat balls into the pan
   
10. Grill the meat balls for 4-5mins, on medium low heat (with lid closed) on one side before turning the meat balls to the other side and continue to grill for another 4-5mins.
    
11. Serve warm and drizzle with more yakitori sauce
    

Chicken Satay

I love chicken satay especially those selling at the Satay Club. However, with a 3 years old active boy there is no way we can sit down nicely to enjoy our satay.

I've been wondering about making and grilling my own satay ever since I bought the Happycall pans. The wonders about these pans are the fact that they can cook, stew, bake & grill. So, to give that grilling bit a test and to satisfy my cravings for chicken satay, I decided to make them and see how well it turns out.

The results are just awesome! The satay was grilled so nicely and the best part....all grilled without using oil! Ok, ok, I've already added oil to the meat while marinating but STILL ... no oil during grilling! I only brush on some honey just to make it look more authentic! hahahahah The taste is really nice, not quite close to those from Satay Club but nice enough for me and it is not spicy so kids can get to enjoy as well.

The peanut sauce is really yummy! I think I shall make this peanut sauce again for my Satay Bee Hoon this weekend, that is, if time permits :D

Making the satay sauce is a breeze too espcially now since we can easily purchased ground peanuts from the shelves like NTUC etc... In the past, I had to help my mum to fry the peanuts, skinned it and then pound it to get it to the right texture.

The paste is also not difficult to make. I took the lazy way out of just grinding everything with my chopper /processor. My mum would certainly frown on that as she always insisted that pounding give out a better quality paste due to the release of oil from the various ingredients. I do agree with her but just not in the mood to tone my arms today hahahahaha. So go ahead, you can either pound or grind, up to your convenience :)

Chicken Satay

Makes 35 sticks

Ingredients

400g Chicken Thigh Meat
OR
400g Chicken Fillet Meat

Spice Paste
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1/8 tsp Cumin Powder
1 stalk Lemongrass, only use the white parts
6 Shallots, peeled
2 Cloves of Garlic, peeled
1cm Knob of Galangal (Blue Ginger)
3 Tbsps Cooking Oil
1 tsp Chilli Powder
2 tsps Tumeric Powder
4 tsps Kecap Manis
1 tsp Oyster Sauce
2 tsps Sugar (Palm Sugar is better)
1 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Tamarind pulp, soaked in 1/4 cup (60ml) warm water, squeezed & strained for juice.
Bamboo Skewers (please soak in water overnight to avoid splitting)
1/2 cup Honey (for glazing during the grilling process)

Garnishes
1 Japanese Cucumber (I prefer Jap. Cucumber to the regular ones)
1 Small Onions, quartered

Methods

1. Cut the chicken meat into small cubes
   
2. Grind/pound the spice paste until nice and fine.
   
3. Add in a little tamarind juice if the paste is too dry.
   
4. Marinate the chicken pieces with the spice paste for at least 6 hours
   
5. Place the marinated meat in ziplog bags and store in the fridge.
   
6. Thread the marinated meat onto the bamboo skewers
   
7. Grill for 3-5 mins on each side, brush some honey as you grill.
   
8. Serve with Peanut sauce.
   

Minced Chicken with Salted Mustard & Tomatoes

Servces 3 Paxs

Ingredients:

280g Salted mustard (kiam chye), finely sliced
4 tbsp Cooking oil
2 tsp Ginger, peeled and finely shredded
1 tsp Garlic, peeled and pounded

1 tsp Yellow bean paste (taucheo)

200g Minced Chicken

2 tsp Sugar

115ml (1/2 cup) Water

2 Tomatoes, cut into wedges

½ Chicken stock cube

Method

1. Soak salted mustard in water for 5 minutes. Drain and squeeze to remove excess water. Set aside.
   
2. Heat 1 tbsp cooking oil in a wok and stir-fry the mustard until limp, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside.
   
3. In the same pan, heat the rest of the oil and lightly brown the ginger and garlic.
   
4. Add the yellow bean paste, minced chicken , sugar and half of the water and fry until fragrant.
   
5. Add the mustard, tomatoes, the rest of the water and the chicken stock cube and cook over low heat for 20mins.
   
6. Add a little water if gravy dries up too much
   
7. Transfer to a dish and serve