When Zach told me that he wanted to eat "chicken with the brown rice", I wasn't too sure what he was talking about. Initially, I thought he meant claypot chicken rice, but that wasn't it. After a few guessing games, I found out that he was really referring to this simple chicken dish cooked with sesame oil and ginger with a soy-caramel sauce. I used to cook it quite often until recently when I was in my "Japanese rice bowl" phase. The reference he made to "brown rice" is purely a result of mixing the dark sauce through the rice before I serve it to them. As the sauce has been reduced until slightly thick and sweet, only a few spoonfuls of it is enough to flavour a bowl of rice. This is my absolute go-to dish especially when I need to get dinner on the table quickly and without too much hassle and clean-up.
Ingredients
350g / 12 oz (about 3 pieces) chicken thigh fillets, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 inch ginger, sliced thinly
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
3-4 tsp Cheong Chan thick caramel sauce (thick dark soy)
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing or chinese cooking wine
2 tsp sugar (or to taste)
1/4 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
In a small pan, heat up the oils. Add ginger and fry for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Add chicken with the thick caramel and fry until seared all over. Add soy sauce, wine, sugar and water. Bring to a simmer and stir to mix. Cover with a lid and let it simmer on low-medium heat for 30 minutes or until the sauce is reduced by half. It should be slightly thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste. Dish out and serve hot with steamed jasmine rice.
Optional: You can add hard-boiled eggs or potatoes to the dish if you like.
8 comments:
This dish does look really delicious; I like to cook braised chicken/pork too. The thick caramel you referred here is that the sweet type or just plain thick dark soy sauce to serve as to darkened the gravy sauce?
Hi Mel, it's the thick dark soy, not the sweet type
I love sauce in my rice! This looks yummy!
I love sauce in my rice! This looks yummy!
I am not sure how I found your blog but I am so glad I did. I just love it and thee are so many recipes here I wanted to try out. By the way, my mom like cooking this dish for us too but she will add some mushrooms to it.
This sounds and looks absolutely delicious. Love the combination of flavors.
I want to confirm too - Thick Caramel is not the caramel, this is actually soy sauce? Is it called "Dark Soy Sauce" or I'm totally not getting right? =P
The description of "brown rice" is exactly how I want to eat this dish. ;-)
@Nami: it's called thick caramel on the bottle and I use cheong chan brand. It's Soy with a thick and sticky consistency. It's not dark soy sauce which is more liquid/watery.
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