Steamed Chicken With Kai Lan 兰花鸡

Steamed Chicken With Kai Lan 兰花鸡

 Looks and tastes great !

Today, we are sharing with you "Lan Fah Gai"

This dish used to be very popular in a ten-course Chinese wedding dinner way back in the sixties when I was a kid. It was popularly known as "Lan Fah Gai" in Cantonese. We hardly see this dish making its appearance anymore at Chinese wedding dinners today. Feeling nostalgic, We tried replicating the dish from memory. The result was unexpectedly good.

Main Ingredients

 

1 kg of chicken ( chopped into bite-sized pieces )       

2 tbsp of Shao Hsing wine                                 

1/2 tsp of salt

1 tbsp of minced ginger

Mix thoroughly and marinate the above in a bowl for half an hour.

Other ingredients

350g of kai lan

1 tsp of sesame oil

Sauce Ingredients

 

3 tbsp of oyster sauce

1/2 tsp of salt

1 tsp of sugar

Dissolve the sauce ingredients in 1 Chinese rice bowl of water

Cornflour Solution

 

2 tsp of cornflour

2 tbsp of water

Dissolve the cornflour with water in a bowl

 

 A plate of raw kai lan

Cooking Instructions

 

 

 1. Clean, wash and separate the kai lan leaves from the stem. Remove the hard parts of the stem. Cut them into sections

 2. In a pot, boil 1.5  litres of water with 1/2 tsp of lye water or kan sui. Parboil the kai lan for 5 minutes

 3. Drain away the yellowish water and use boiled water to rinse the kai lan. Set aside

 4. Place the chicken pieces on a plate and steam in boiling water for 20 minutes.

 5. Pour the liquid from the plate of steamed chicken into a wok and add in the sauce ingredients.

 6. Bring to a boil. Add in the cornflour solution and let it boil for 3 minutes

 7. Switch off the flame,

 8. On a large plate arrange the chicken as shown in the picture

 9. Decorate the kai lan as shown
10. Scoop up the liquid from the wok and pour it over the chicken pieces and kai lan

11. Sprinkle 1 tsp of sesame oil onto the chicken and kai lan


Note :  You can read The Technique of Steaming Food here

Fragrant chicken pieces and crunchy kai lan, delicious!