Chicken features prominently in cuisines and dishes around the world and Asian food is no exception. It is one of the most popular choices of protein while ordering Chinese or Thai takeout food. We all love eating these two cuisines out in restaurants as the delicious and addictive flavours and textures of the food are difficult to replicate at home. If you are an ardent Asian food lover and end up spending a lot of money every month by ordering take-outs, then you will be delighted to know that we are here to reveal a cooking technique that gives that perfectly tender and smooth quality to the chicken in Chinese food. It is called 'velveting chicken' and is a technique of cooking chicken that is used by almost all Chinese restaurants to cook chicken for their stir-fries.
I'Velveting' chicken involves marinating chicken strips in a special egg white marinade overnight and then boiling them for use in stir-fries of your choice. You can easily prepare the velveting marinade at home. Learning how to velvet chicken can potentially save you a lot of money on ordering in Chinese food. by simply preparing restaurant-style Chinese food at home.
Also Read: 11 Best Chinese Chicken Recipes | Popular Chinese Recipes
How to velvet chicken in three simple steps:
1. Marinating
The first step in learning how to velvet chicken is to know how to prepare the marinade. To prepare the marinade, you need the whites from one large egg, a little white vinegar, some salt and some corn-starch. Cut your chicken breast into thin strips (you can go for any thickness in chicken strips that you like). Add the marinade to a large bowl and dip the strips in the marinade. Use your hands to completely coat the chicken strips with the marinade. Cover the bowl with a plastic cling film and let it rest overnight.
Also Read: Indian Chinese Food: How Hakka Noodles And Manchurian Started A Cult Cuisine
2. Boiling
Add some water to a pot and place it on the stove on high flame. When the water comes to a boil turn the flame down and gently add the marinated chicken strips to the water. Make sure to shake off excess marinade from the chicken strips before adding them to the boiling water. Add some olive oil to the water if you wish to add a rich flavour to the chicken. Cook the chicken for about one or two minutes, until the chicken strips are white on the outside but still slightly uncooked on the inside.
3. Stir-frying
After this step, the chicken can be used in any velvet chicken stir fry recipe you like. Now that the cooked velvety chicken is ready for use in any stir-fry of your choice. Add some olive oil to a non-stick pan and stir-fry veggies of your choice along with some soy sauce, crushed garlic and ginger, and any other spices of your choice. Once the stir-fry is done, you can use it to top cooked rice or noodles for the perfect bowl of restaurant-style Chinese food.
Also Read: 5 Things You Should Never Do While Eating Chinese Food
You can also store the boiled velvety chicken in refrigerator for use in subsequent meals. This technique will make you want to never order Chinese takeout food ever again!