Simple Chicken Nuggets

Most children love chicken nuggets which are delicious and easy to eat. However, those sold outside are generally unhealthy. They contain little actual chicken meat and are mostly made up of skin, fats, tissues and fillers.  They are high in sodium and artificial additives. They are fried in either partially hydrogenated oil which create artificial trans fats or fully hydrogenated oils which increase the saturated fats in the final processed food.

Thus, it is definitely better to make the chicken nuggets at home. The ingredients that go into making the nuggets can be varied; it all depends on what you like. I have made the simplest chicken nuggets using only a few ingredients. Most nuggets are deep fried. However, I have baked them for a more healthy version.

Ingredients:

• 200 g chicken fillet
• 80 g potato
• 10 g coriander
• 3 tsp corn flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Instructions:

• Pre-heat the oven at 175 degree C.

• Cut the chicken fillet into smaller pieces.

• Boil the potato till it is soft.

• Wash the coriander and cut them into shorter pieces.

• Add the chicken fillet, potato, coriander, corn flour, salt and pepper into the container of the food processor.

• Process the ingredients till all the fillet and ingredients are fine and well mixed up.

•  Remove the processed chicken from the food processor.

• Shape them into nuggets.

• Arrange them onto a baking tray lined with greased parchment paper.

• Spray the nuggets with cooking oil.

• Bake them in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes.

• Serve with chilli sauce.

Satay Ayam or Grilled Chicken on Bamboo Skewers

Satay is a popular local delicacy that can be easily found especially in the evenings or nights in coffee shops or night markets. It consists of marinated skewered meats that are grilled over an open flame using charcoal and served with a rich, savoury peanut dipping sauce, onion, cucumber and compressed rice (nasi impit). These meats can be chicken, beef or mutton.

Making satay had been in my to-do list for a long time. And I finally decided it was time. My journey in making satay started with buying chicken, all the required spices like cumin, fennel and coriander and herbs like ginger, lemongrass, turmeric and galangal.  I left out candlenuts; the small amount will not affect the taste of the satay. Next, it was marinating the chicken, skewering and grilling the marinated chicken. I marinated the chicken for 3 days so that they are very flavourful when grilled.

Ingredients:

• 1.25 kg chicken breast
• 7.5 g cumin seeds (jintan putih)
• 7.5 g fennel seeds (jintan manis)
• 7.5 g coriander seeds (ketumbar)
• 25 g turmeric powder
• 200 g onions
• 50 g garlic
• 50 g lemongrass
• 50 g ginger
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 25 g sugar
• 3 tbsp cooking oil

Ingredients:

• Wash and slice the chicken into 2 cm wide and 6-7 cm length. set aside.

• Toast the cumin, fennel and coriander seeds till they are very fragrant. Grind them till very fine. (You may use store-bought powders.)

• Peel and cut onion and garlic and add to the blender.

• Slice the lemongrass and ginger thinly and add to the blender.

• Blend these ingredients till fine.

• Add the ground spices, turmeric powder, blended ingredients, salt, pepper, sugar and cooking oil to a mixing bowl. Mix them up very well.

• Add the chicken to the blend and mix, making sure the chicken is well coated.

• Cover the bowl and leave it in the fridge for 2-3 days.

• Soak about 35 bamboo skewers for a day to ensure they will not burn during grilling.

• On the day of consumption, skewer the marinated chicken.

• Prepare a stalk of lemongrass. Mash the end of the white part gently. This is required to baste the meat with the remaining marinade.

• Grill the skewered chicken using either charcoal grill or electric grill or grill over gas stove.

• Keep on turning the chicken skewers. Baste each side with the remainder marinade using the lemongrass.

• Remove the skewers from the grill once the chicken has cooked.

• Serve with peanut sauce, cucumber and onion.

Spicy Garlicky Lemongrass Chicken

We can find so many aromatic herbs in our markets and supermarkets - like the torch ginger flower (bunga kantan), lemongrass (serai), ginger leaves (daun hail) and so on. These can really make our dishes very fragrant and more appetising. I have been using a lot of lemongrass in my cooking and the resulting dishes were highly approved by my family. In fact my son told me to cook this Garlicky Lemongrass Chicken more often as it is so delicious. So I have been cooking this dish quite often. It is very easy to cook it. Most important is to marinate the chicken pieces well for at least 1/2 an hour in advance. But I usually marinate my meat 1 day in advance for a very tasty meat dish.

Ingredients:

• 400 g chicken meat (You may use any part of the meat - the breast or the thigh. You may use bone-in or deboned chicken.)
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce (or more for a more salty dish)
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 3 stalks of lemongrass
• 3-5 chili padi (depending on how spicy you want your dish to be.)
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 4 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

• Cut up chicken into cubes.

• Marinate the chicken cubes with pepper, light soy sauce and oyster sauce.

• Cut lemongrass into 1-inch length. Smash the lemongrass to emit more fragrance from it.

• Cut up the chili padi into small pieces.

• Chop the garlic.

• Heat up cooking oil in a kuali.

• Add the lemongrass and chili padi to the kuali and sauce them till fragrant.

• Add the chopped garlic and sauté till fragrant but not too brown.

• Add chicken cubes.

• Fry till they are cooked.

• Add the dark soy sauce to the kuali.

• Fry to mix the dark soy sauce with the other ingredients in the kuali.

• Dish up.

Stirfried Chicken with Lemon

Lemons have many uses; we can make lemonade from them, bake with them, cook with them and decorate with them. Adding lemon to any dish makes it tangy. The tangy taste can really whet one's appetite and makes one want to eat more during a meal.  I have made Tangy Roast Chicken before. However, this is the first time I have stirfry chicken with lemon. Usually, I will cook chicken curry, braise chicken, stew chicken, bake/airfry/roast chicken and cook chicken soup. Adding lemon to my stirfried chicken dish was to create a new dish for the family. 

 Ingredients:

• 400 g chicken breast
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 1 lemon
• slice 1/2 of the lemon (keep a few pieces for decoration)
• squeeze out 2 tbsp juice of the other half
• 3 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 5 tbsp water
• 1 stalk of green onion (cut the green part into small pieces for garnishing the dish)

Method:

• Cube the chicken breast.

• Marinate chicken breast with light and dark soy sauces, oyster sauce, salt, pepper powder and cornflour for at least half an hour. (I marinated the chicken for 2 hours.)

• Heat up the wok with cooking oil.

• Add the chopped garlic and sauté it till it is fragrant.

• Add the marinated chicken.

• Stir fry the chicken till it is almost cooked, adding water in the process to keep the chicken moist.

• Add the lemon slices and continue to stir fry until the chicken is cooked.

• Add lemon juice and give the chicken a quick stir.

• Dish out the chicken onto a serving plate.

• Decorate the dish with some lemon slices and sprinkle cut green onion on top.

Chicken Potato Nuggets

     

Today I decided to create something new for my son. He must have been bored with fried chicken, curry chicken and steamed chicken. Although he has eaten chicken nuggets he has never eaten chicken potato nuggets. Neither have I. Looking around I saw many potatoes in my kitchen. If I were to leave them for another week I think I would have to bin them. So I thought "how about making chicken potato nuggets"? Using my imagination I just thought about the logical processes of making these nuggets using the tools that I have in my kitchen. Besides the potatoes I have my favourite coriander which would definitely add flavour to the nuggets, onions, eggs, cornflour and all the seasonings which I think would make my nuggets flavourful. So, after 1.5 hours my nuggets are ready. Of course the next make would be easier and take less time.

Ingredients:

•  250 g chicken breast
• 140 g potatoes
• 50 g onions
• 10 g coriander
• 1/2 tsp chili flakes
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 1 egg

Method:

• Cube the chicken breast.

• Cube the potatoes and boil them till they are soft. Let them cool down.

• Add chicken breast, potatoes and onions into the grinder/blender/food processor.

• Grind all the ingredients till they form a paste.

• Transfer the paste to a mixing bowl.

• Wash and chop up the coriander.

• Add the chopped coriander to the paste.

• Add child flakes, black pepper, salt, cornflour and egg to the mixing bowl.

• Mix all the ingredients till they are evenly incorporated.

• Oil a steaming plate.

• Transfer the paste to the steaming plate. Level the top of the paste with a spatula.

• Prepare a steamer.

• Once the water in the steamer has boiled, put the steaming plate of paste in.

• Steam the paste for 20 minutes or till cooked.

• Remove the plate from the steamer and let the cooked paste cool down.

• Invert the cooked paste onto a cutting board.

• Cut it into rectangular shape.

• You may pan fry, deep fry or air fry them. (You may keep them in the fridge and pan fry, deep fry or air fry them the next day.)

• Your nuggets are ready to be served.

Ayam Percik

Ayam Percik is one of the most delicious chicken which can be eaten as they are or with white rice. However, it is only easily available during Ramadan. Thus, to be able to enjoy it more often I took it upon myself to learn how to make it. The ingredients used are very easily available. The process of making it is also very simple. The result tasted exactly as those that we bought from the sellers. Nowadays, I just make it whenever my family requests for it. 

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken about 1.8 kg, cut into 4 parts
• 336 g red onions (4 pieces)
• 59 g lemongrass (3 stalks)
• 33 g garlic(7 cloves)
• 1/2 inch ginger
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste
• 2 tsp chili flakes or chili powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 250 ml santan or coconut milk

Method:

• Wash chicken and set aside to dry.

• Add red onions, lemongrass, garlic and ginger to a blender. Blend till they form a fine paste.

• Add salt, chili flakes or chili powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder to the paste. Mix till all the ingredients are well incorporated.

• Keep half of the mixture* for later use.

• Rub the chicken parts with sugar.

• Add half of the mixture to the chicken parts. Rub all the parts with this mixture. Leave overnight in the fridge.

• Next day, take out the marinated chicken parts from the fridge and let them come down to room temperature. (If you do not wish to marinate the chicken parts overnight, then it is better to marinate them for at least 4 hours.)

• Meanwhile, add the balance half of the mixture* to a non-stick pan. Add the santan to the pan and cook them till the santan mixture is aromatic.

• Air fry or bake the chicken parts at 240 deg C for 30 minutes. Turn the parts over midway through air frying or baking.

• Spread the santan mixture on top of the chicken parts and air fry or bake for a further 10 minutes.

• Serve with white rice.

Braised Chicken with Capsicum Sprinkled with Sesame Seeds

When we run out of ideas on what to cook, just see what meats, seafood and vegetables are in the refrigerator and try to mix and match them to create a new dish. Or, just surf the World Wide Web to look for ideas. We need not copy ingredient for ingredient nor method for method when we do that as cooking is an art. We can add our ideas to whatever recipes that we have seen and create another new dish. For this dish - Braised Chicken with Capsicum Sprinkled with Sesame Seeds, I have seen a video (just the method without the weight of ingredients) on the World Wide Web. I have just estimated the ingredients and went ahead with cooking it.

Ingredients:

• 300 g chicken meat
• 1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6-8 g white sesame seeds
• 100 g capsicum, various colours
• 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/4 cup water

Method:

• Wash and cut the chicken into bite sizes.

• Marinate them with dark and light soy sauces, pepper, salt and sesame oil for at least an hour.

• Toast the white sesame seeds till golden brown and fragrant. Set aside.

• Wash and cut the capsicum into little squares.

• Heat up wok or pan with sesame oil.

• Saute the garlic till fragrant.

• Add the marinated chicken and fry them.

• Add some water to braise the chicken till they are cooked.

• Add the capsicum and give them a quick stir (as I like to maintain their crunchiness).

• Scoop them onto a serving plate.

• Sprinkle the sesame seeds onto the chicken.

• Serve

Lemongrass Chicken - Airfried and Fried

I have done a very simple Turmeric and Lemongrass Chicken earlier which involved marinating the chicken and baking it. It is a very straight forward and easy method of cooking the chicken. This current version involves more processes as we have to pound the lemongrass and blend the chili before we can marinate, airfry and finally fry the chicken in the pan. However, the final dish is more fragrant as the finely pounded lemongrass is fried together with the chili paste. 


Ingredients:

• Half a chicken
• 2 tbsp turmeric powder
• 2 tbsp chili powder or chili flakes
• 4 stalks of lemongrass
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• All of chili paste
• 10 pcs red chilies
• 4 pcs dried chilies
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 small red onion
• Cooking oil to saute chili paste

Method:

• Prepare the lemongrass. Wash and cut them into 1-inch length. Pound them to break up them into fine strands.

• Prepare the chili paste by blending/pounding the red chilies, dried chilies, garlic and red onion.

• Wash and pat dry the chicken with kitchen towel. Put the chicken into a mixing bowl.

• Mix the turmeric powder, chili powder/chili flakes, a bit of the pounded lemongrass, black pepper powder, salt and cooking oil to form a paste.

• Rub the paste on the chicken completely.

• Let the marinated chicken stand for a minimum of 30 minutes.

• Airfry the chicken at 240 degree Centigrade for 30 minutes, turning them half way to ensure all pieces are cooked.

• Remove the chicken from the airfryer when done.

• Heat up a pan or wok with cooking oil.

• Saute the chili paste and the remaining lemongrass till fragrant.

• Add the airfried chicken pieces to the pan or wok. Stir till all the pieces are covered with the chili paste and lemongrass.
  

• Transfer the chicken to a serving plate.

 

Lo Mai Gai (Steamed Glutinous Rice with Chicken)

Lo Mai Gai is a savoury dish sold in Chinese dim sum restaurants. It is steamed glutinous or sticky rice topped with chicken, Shiitake mushroom and Chinese sausage slices. It usually comes in small metal bowls which is overturned onto a plate when brought to the customers in these restaurants. Nowadays, we do not have to patronise these dim sum restaurants to savour them. We are able to buy them from stalls selling Chinese buns which are usually located outside coffee shops. While these are delicious, we find them to be too oily. By cooking them ourselves (and it is easy to make them) we are able to reduce the amount of oil and salt and add more ingredients like the chicken, Shiitake mushrooms and Chinese sausage or lap cheong to make them even more delicious. 

Ingredients:

• For the rice: (5 pax)
• 2 cups glutinous rice, soaked for at least 4 hours
• 5 shallots (or more), chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tbsp dried prawns (small size), soaked
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp 5-spice powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3 tbsp cooking oil
• 1/2 cup water

• For the ingredients:
• 10 slices of chicken, either thigh or breast meat
• 2 pcs Shiitake mushroom, soaked and cut into 5 big or 10 smaller pieces
• 2-inch ginger, chopped and squeezed for the juice)
• 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
• 1/4 tsp 5-spice powder
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
• 1 pc Chinese sausage, soak, remove casing and cut into 10 slices
• 1/2 cup water

• Garnishing
• 1 stalk green onion, cut into small pcs

Method:

• Wash and soak the glutinous rice for a minimum of 4 hours. (However, I prefer to soak them overnight so that it takes a shorter period to cook.)

• Marinate the chicken and mushroom with ginger juice, salt, 5-spice powder, sesame oil, light and dark soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine for at least 2 hours.

• Add cooking oil to a kuali. (I use only 3 tbsp but add more if you want a more oil Lo Mai Gai.)

• Fry the dried prawns till they are fragrant. Remove them and set aside.

• Saute the shallots and garlic till they are fragrant.

• Add the dried prawns back to the kuali.

• Add the glutinous rice and fry them.

• Add light and dark soy sauce, salt, 5-spice powder and pepper and continue to fry them till all are well-mixed. (You may add more dark soy sauce if you wish for the rice to be darker.)

• Stir-fry the rice for a few minutes till the rice is fragrant.

• Add 1/2 cup of water to the rice and continue to fry the rice till the water is absorbed.

• Meanwhile, fill a steamer with water and boil the water.

• Transfer the rice to a metal plate. Put the plate into the steamer to steam the rice till partially cooked, approximately 15 minutes.

• Taste the rice when done. Add more light soy sauce if you like it to be more salty.

• While the rice is being steamed, use the same kuali to fry the Chinese sausage slices till oil comes out. Remove the sausage slices without the oil and set them aside.

• Use the sausage oil to fry the chicken and mushroom slices. Add 1/2 cup of water to the kuali and fry them till they are cooked.

• To assemble, place 2 pieces of marinated chicken, 1-2 mushroom pieces (depending how you cut them (black part facing downward) and 2 pieces Chinese sausages on the base of the bowl. (My bowl measures 10.5 cm in diameter.)

• Scoop the glutinous rice into the bowl covering the ingredients.

• Spoon the remainder sauce from the chicken to the rice.

• Cover the bowl with aluminium foil to prevent water from getting into the rice during steaming. Take care not to let the foil touch the rice.

• Steam the rice for 30 minutes till it is fully cooked. Add more time if the rice is not fully cooked or you prefer a softer rice texture.

• It can be served hot or cold.

• Garnish with green onions before serving.

• Note: It can be frozen if you cannot finish them. Just take them out from the freezer and place on the table to return them to room temperature. Steam for a short period before serving them.

Baked Lemon Chicken

       

 

A super delicious way of eating baked chicken. There is tanginess, slight saltiness, natural sweetness and peppery taste all add together.  

Ingredients:

• 1/2 of a big chicken
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper powder
• Juice from 1 lemon
• Juice from 1/2 a lemon

Method:

• Wash and cut the chicken into 6 pieces (or 8 for slightly smaller pieces).

• Pat dry and marinade with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

• Place some pieces of lemon peel under and on top of the chicken.

• Leave the chicken overnight in the refrigerator.

• Take out the chicken the next day at least 1 hour before baking.

• Heat up the oven at 200 deg C for 10 minutes.

• Line the baking tray with parchment paper for easy cleaning.

• Arrange the chicken pieces on the parchment paper.

• Pour the juice from 1/2 a lemon onto the chicken.

• Bake the chicken at 200 deg C for 30 minutes.

• Turn over the chicken and continue to bake for another 30 minutes.

• Transfer the chicken onto a serving plate and decorate with some strips of lemon peel.

• Serve.

Deep-fried Minced Chicken on Bread

   

 

Deep-fried Minced Chicken on Bread is a very delicious food that can be served for breakfast or for mid-morning or afternoon tea. You can even serve it as finger food at your parties. What I have here are minced chicken mixed with carrot and green onions. However, you can vary these ingredients and add say, green, yellow or red capsicum. And instead of green onions you can add coriander. The taste would be equally fantastic.

Ingredients:

• 4 slices of bread
• 100 g minced chicken
• 15 g carrot, chopped
• 1 chili padi, chopped
• 1 stalk green onion, chopped
• 1 tsp flour
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• Cooking oil for frying

Method:

• Take 4 slices of bread. Use a round cutter to obtain 2 pieces of round bread from each slice. Set aside.

• Add minced chicken, chopped carrot, chopped chili padi, chopped green onions, flour, egg, salt and pepper to a mixing bowl. Mix these ingredients up to form a paste.

• Divide the paste up into 8 equal portions. Roll each into a meat ball.

• Put one meat ball onto one piece of round bread.

• Pack the meat ball securely onto the bread.

• Heat up a pan with enough oil for deep-frying.

• When the oil is hot, gently place the bread onto the pan.

• Fry till the meat is cooked and the bread is golden brown.

• Dish up the bread onto a kitchen towel to soak up excess oil.

• You can serve them as they are or with some chili sauce or tomato ketchup.