Chinese Chicken Recipe

Chicken and duck are the principal poultry in the Chinese kitchen and there are innumerable ways in which they can be served, many of them new to the Western world, for instance, 'Paper Wrapped Chicken'. They range from the simple to the exotic. The more familiar ones to the West are the appetizing Sweet and Sour chicken and orange chicken; the flavorful Sesame Chicken and Garlic Chicken, and the savory Kung Pao Chicken, just to name a few. Some of them would be ideal for appetizers and salad.

Chickens are considered something a little more special than just meat by Chinese. One large chicken can often be worked in several different ways. For instance, the white meat can be sliced to make a stir-frying dish. Dark meat and bones can be used for slow-cooking soup. The meat in the soup , if not overcooked, can be used to make White Cut Chicken, or combined with dark soy sauce to make one form of Red-Cooked Chicken, an Eastern or Shanghai style cooking. With young chicken, after the white meat is used in shallow fry, the other parts can be used in deep fry. Thus, Chinese have names like Chicken-in-Three-Flavors or three dishes coming from one chicken.

While most Westerners discard them, chicken giblets and other parts such as necks are very useful in the Chinese kitchen. Some like them better than meat and chicken. Chicken gizzards, hearts, skinned feet and necks make beautifully clear stock. Chicken livers are never used in the stock but are reserved for inclusion in special dishes, or cooked as a dish itself. The feet have more goodness than one might think and is very delicious cooked in Chinese recipes. For soup, Chinese usually use big fat hens. When the recipe calls for spring chicken, it is usually young roosters.