Chicken cooked Chinese Wine - simply divine in super cold weather!

In times of extreme cold, a nice hearty soup always does the trick. Living in the UK meant you'd have a variety of English soups. From chicken and parsnip, leek and potato, butternut squash to the traditional winter vegetables and mushroom variety. I however, miss the typical Asian soups that have a clear broth but packed with goodies to munch on. One such dish is Chicken cooked in Chinese Wine. Before my coming here, I've never actually had to venture out to buy Chinese cooking wine, but in my larder, trust me, I have every single sauce you can think of. Anyway getting on... what went into the dish?

Ingredients:

8 chicken legs chopped into bite size pieces with skin left on (equivalent to one packet from the local supermarket)

10 dried shiitake mushrooms - soaked in hot water

3 large pieces of morsels - soaked in hot water

2 large stalks of leek (optional) - chopped finely

10 to 15 whole black / white pepper

1 large bowl of water

1 cup of Chinese cooking wine

1 thumb sized ginger - skinned and julienned

Some cooking oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Firstly prepare your dried ingredients. Soak the mushrooms and morsels before putting on the pot on the stove. Whilst waiting for both ingredients to soak through before slicing them up, heat up a sizable pot and add in ginger into pan with the cooking oil. Stir fry for a bit before adding in the chicken. As you have kept the chicken skin on, the dish will have enough oil at the end.
2. After stir frying the chicken for a bit add in the water. Then add in the whole peppers and bring to boil. Now your dried ingredients would be soft enough to be sliced. There is no need to finely slice the mushrooms nor morsels. The bigger sized the better. Toss them all in including the water that was used to soak both the dried ingredients.
3. Bring to a boil, once boiling, reduce to a simmering temperature and add in the Chinese cooking wine. 1 cup is just to add flavour but I normally add in more to give it that extra zing. Continue simmering and add in salt and pepper when needed for extra flavouring.
4. Turn off the gas and serve piping hot with white rice and blanched Chinese Vegetables.

This dish warmed me up immediately! But in Malaysia, we eat it regardless of temperature. Hahahaha... enjoy it. No Chinese Wine? Then use normal white wine. It has the same effect :)

Next recipe to come devour coming up!

The Innovative Baker