Pictorial: Chicken w/Lemon Grass Black Bean Sauce

[hzrt8w]

Chicken with Lemon Grass and Black Bean Sauce (香茅豉汁鸡)

I have tasted one dish in a Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant. They used lemon grass to stir-fry diced chicken with fermented black beans. The fragrance of lemon grass has given this dish a characteristic taste. I really love it.

Suggested serving size: 4-5

Ingredients: Chicken breast (1 1/2 lb, about 4 pieces), lemon grass (use 1/2 stalk), onion (1 small-size), garlic (about 5-6 cloves), fermented black beans (2 tblsp). Not shown: chili pepper or jalapeno (1/2).

Trim the fat and dice the chicken breast into 1 inch cubes.

Sauces to marinade the chicken: Sesame oil (3 tblsp), fish sauce (3 tblsp), Shaoshing cooking wine (1.5 tblsp), ground white pepper (1.5 tblsp), corn starch (2 tblsp).

Use a mixing bowl. Combine the diced chicken with all marinade ingredients.

Mix well. Set aside to marinate for 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Minced the garlic. Chop 1/2 stalk of lemon grass. Discard the most outer layers and trim off the top 4 inches. First make about 3 cuts along the stem, then make the cross cuts in very fine increments. Peel and wedge 1 small onion. (Not shown: cut 1/2 chili pepper (e.g. jalapeno) into thin slices. Also, rinse, drain and mash the fermented black beans.)

Velvet the marinated chicken first. Use a pan/wok over high heat, add 3 tblsp cooking oil. Add chicken. Stir. Cook until chicken is closed to done (pink color just disappeared). Remove from pan and drain.

After removing the chicken, add 1 tblsp cooking oil. Heat until oil starts fuming. Add minced garlic, lemon grass, mashed fermented black beans and sliced chili pepper. Add a pinch of salt (to taste, or skip). Stir and cook for 20 seconds.

Add wedged onions. Stir. Cook for 1 minute.

Dash in 1 tblsp of white vinegar. Stir. Add about 1/2 cup of chicken broth (or water if you don't have chicken broth). Add 2 tblsp of fish sauce and 1 tblsp of sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce to the right consistency.

Re-add the chicken back in the pan. Stir well. Cook for another minute to heat up the chicken. Finished.

The finished dish.

Notes: This dish is basically the same as the Cantonese Chicken with Black Bean Sauce, with the addition of lemon grass.

Variations: you may add green bell pepper to this dish, or use other types of meat instead of chicken (e.g. beef, shrimp).

Edited October 8, 2005 by hzrt8w (log)

[Dejah]

Hey! How did you get a hold of my platter?!

A good looking dish. hzrt! We'll have to make up a menu with all your dishes for the virtual Chinese home cooking restaurant we talked about in another thread...

[BettyK]

You did it again.

I vote that these pictorials and cook-offs be pinned to the first page as an index so we can find them later. Can anyone help? Torakris?

[muichoi]

hzrt8w,looks great. I keep meaning to ask you if you're happy with your frying pan?

[Dejah]

hzrt8w,looks great. I keep meaning to ask you if you're happy with your frying pan?

←

Looks more like a sautee pan than a frying pan...

have you always used this type of cookware? hzrt? I have woks, but have been eyeing a sautee pan...

[hzrt8w]

hzrt8w,looks great. I keep meaning to ask you if you're happy with your frying pan?

←

Looks more like a sautee pan than a frying pan...

have you always used this type of cookware? hzrt?

←

I often read on the Internet forums that someone gets really interested to learn how to cook Chinese food. You know what's the first thing that they do before they even buy a Chinese food cookbook? They go out and buy a wok! LOL! To cook "Chinese" food, it's in the ingredients and the process. Yes using a wok is nice, but it's not an absolute requirement.

What you see in these pictures is what I have used in the past 20+ years to cook Chinese food. Yes I am a Chinese. Yes I have used a wok. No I don't current own a wok. I do all my stir-fried dishes with two 12-inch frying pans or sautee pans or whatever they are called - from the set of utensils we received for our wedding. I have been using them and I love them. They are easier to toss and to clean.

Someday I might get myself a 12000 BTU or 24000 BTU stove. When that time comes, I will then buy a cast iron wok to make "proper" Chinese food - with "wok hey" and the whole nine yard! As long as I am using these tiny stoves, I am not going to bother. (And Tepee... I envy your equipment! )

Edited October 8, 2005 by hzrt8w (log)

[wesza]

hzrt8w:

I am delighted about your approach to preparing Chinese Dishes in a considerably more healthy modern manner with almost magical applications proving less is more.

I feel that in most larger Chinese Communities a Restaurant serving dishes in the manner your showing us all at eGullet would appeal to the younger more health conscious Asian community.

You prefer to cook in a manner that results in a better tasting finished dish that is more healthy, looks delicious prepared with finesse.

It would even appeal to the many health aware Grandma's and even a Grandpa [me] as well.

Keep up the, "Good Imaginative Adaptable Work" we will all benefit.

Irwin

[muichoi]

I agree that it's silly to use a wok on a totally inadequate heat source,and the flat-bottomed variety is a non-starter-the worst of both worlds-but on a reasonably good gas flame I find a wok infinitely more practical than a frying pan, though now i can cook on my outside burner I'd never go back-still, whatever one's used to works best, and your dishes certainly don't look as if they suffer.

[torakris]

You did it again.   

I vote that these pictorials and cook-offs be pinned to the first page as an index so we can find them later. Can anyone help? Torakris?

←

I was actually thinking the same thing last week!

I will make a pinned thread of links for all of them as soon as my blog is over.

By the way, I think this chicken dish is on the menu for next week!

[Carlovski]

hzrt8w,looks great. I keep meaning to ask you if you're happy with your frying pan?

←

Looks more like a sautee pan than a frying pan...

have you always used this type of cookware? hzrt?

←

I often read on the Internet forums that someone gets really interested to learn how to cook Chinese food. You know what's the first thing that they do before they even buy a Chinese food cookbook? They go out and buy a wok! LOL! To cook "Chinese" food, it's in the ingredients and the process. Yes using a wok is nice, but it's not an absolute requirement.

What you see in these pictures is what I have used in the past 20+ years to cook Chinese food. Yes I am a Chinese. Yes I have used a wok. No I don't current own a wok. I do all my stir-fried dishes with two 12-inch frying pans or sautee pans or whatever they are called - from the set of utensils we received for our wedding. I have been using them and I love them. They are easier to toss and to clean.

Someday I might get myself a 12000 BTU or 24000 BTU stove. When that time comes, I will then buy a cast iron wok to make "proper" Chinese food - with "wok hey" and the whole nine yard! As long as I am using these tiny stoves, I am not going to bother. (And Tepee... I envy your equipment! )

←

It's very true - I've seen so many people think - Oh we are having 'chinese' (Usually straight from some jar or packet) and reach for the (usually overly heavy and non stick!) wok. Which they then set to a gentle simmer.....

[BettyK]

You did it again.   

I vote that these pictorials and cook-offs be pinned to the first page as an index so we can find them later. Can anyone help? Torakris?

←

I was actually thinking the same thing last week!

I will make a pinned thread of links for all of them as soon as my blog is over.

←

Thanks, Kristin. You're a gem.

[xiaobao12]

hzrt,

I am blown away by your skills. How do you brown all that meat without burning it in that seemingly thin-bottom pan? Is the heat on high???

[hzrt8w]

Thanks xiaobao. The heat was on high. I wish I have a wok burner but I don't. That's just a regular gas range in American kitchens. How not to burn the meat? Stir it often I guess. Never thought of it.

[jo-mel]

If you use enough oil while velveting the meat, it won't burn. You are not cooking the meat thru to the inside -- just taking away the pink.

(Hi hzrt! Hao jiu bu 'jian'!)

[xiaobao12]

thanks for the responses.

hzrt, although I do think that using a skillet gives me more surface area to play with, I have to use a lot more oil than if I were to use a wok.

I guess this is the trade off right?

[patrickamory]

Made this tonight. Pic in the dinner thread. Thanks hzrt8w!