Cold Ginger Chicken

I enjoyed the cold ginger chicken dish at Wo Fat Chinese Restaurant in Las Vegas recently and I thought I could make something similar using my Sous Vide. I thought the chicken would get the right infusion of flavor and a certain tenderness that I wanted.  Instead of a whole chicken I just used legs so everything would be done at the same time in the Sous Vide. I studied several recipes for Hawaiian Style Cold Ginger Chicken.

Basically Cold Ginger Chicken is made by simmering a whole chicken in water with ginger garlic and green onions. Then you pull it out of the liquid when cooked and then shock it with cold water and chop and serve with the sauce. At the restaurant they served the chicken with bones and skin that you had to remove. They also served it WARM so I also serve it warm. I prefer to remove the skin and bones before serving.

Not all but many of the recipes I looked at for the sauce included a large amount of oil that you heat up and add the minced green onions and ginger with a little garlic and cilantro. What I did different from most recipes was to cut the oil to only 1/4 cup and added some water. I didn’t want to use a large amount of oil for this dish. When I made the sauce I thought it was good but as it sat it turned more oniony than I wanted so I added 2 teaspoons of brown sugar and one teaspoon of rice wine vinegar. It seemed balanced after that but I don’t know if those are ingredients are authentic for a cold ginger chicken recipe but they taste good that way so there they are. This dish comes out FORKING AMAZING and different! It isn’t a strong ginger taste like you might expect. It just comes out DELICIOUS!

Ingredients Set Sous Vide to 176 degrees F 4-8 hours I’m doing 6

4 lbs. whole chicken legs

4 garlic cloves rough chopped

1/2 medium onion pealed and rough chopped

2 1/2 in. ginger chopped

1 carrot cut in a few pieces

1 small Thai chili cut in half

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

1 Tablespoon fresh cilantro

2 scallions chopped in half

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 oz. frozen chicken fat

Everything goes in your Sous Vide Bag. Just Vacuum and seal and let it cook about 6 hours at 176 degrees F. When it’s done you can put in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Don’t use any of the vegetables. All the flavor came out of them, they are trash now. I like to remove the skin and take the chicken off the bones to serve. Reserve the liquid from your Sous Vide bag for serving. Skim off the fat and use a tablespoon or 2 of liquid for each serving of chicken.

Sauce Ingredients

10 scallions chopped

3 garlic cloves chopped

2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup grated ginger

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup water

2 teaspoons dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Just blend up and heat before serving and pour over the chicken that might be warm.

Sous Vide Hawaiian Inspired Cold Ginger Chicken

This is a great recipe. Even people like my husband who hates ginger thinks this dish is delicious. Kept forking thanking me all night long for preparing this dish.

It’s FORKING Delicious and that’s The Forking Truth

..

Duchess Inspired Kabocha Squash

One of the most delicious and most indulgent potato side dishes are duchess potatoes. They are like mashed potatoes but are over the top and are like on steroids. Duchess potatoes are cooked potatoes that are mixed with heavy cream, soft butter, egg yolks and a little nutmeg with salt and pepper. The potatoes get piped threw a pastry bag and and then baked in the oven to get tasty crisp ends. It’s a very rich dish and you sure don’t come by it often as it often was a dish that was usually served table side on a big silver platter with a chateaubriand also know as a Tenderloin for two. Those kind of dishes and restaurants with table side service seemed to disappeared around 1990. They seemed to have gone out of style.

I think I updated the recipe using much lighter healthier kabocha squash. To make a batch of either duchess potatoes or duchess inspired kabocha squash we start with a medium size squash or about 3 pounds of potatoes. The nutrition is significantly different.

about 3 pounds of potatoes is around 854 calories and about 248 carbs

about 3 pounds of kabocha squash is around 240 calories and about 42 carbs

I also cut in half the amount of butter I’d use to make duchess potatoes and instead of the 3 egg yolks I just used 1 whole extra large egg.

Because the flavor profile is different I did splurge on a 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar I thought we could afford.

Overall it’s very tasty and dinner guest will not be aware that this is a much lighter healthier alternative to a potato side dish.

Ingredients to make around 16 portions (extras can be frozen and reheated well)

1 medium kabocha squash roasted, seeded and flesh removed

2 oz. butter (room temperature)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 extra large egg beaten

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 a very small fresh grated nutmeg

pinch salt

Directions Set oven to 350 degrees and you need lightly greased baking sheets

mash squash with potato masher and slowly add all the ingredients and mash till well combined. Fill your pastry bag about halfway with mixture and  twist the end to hold the mixture in.

Squeeze out the mixture with your hand holding on to the twisted end while pushing the mixture threw the tip. Make like your adding soft serve ice cream to a cone.

Place in 350 degree oven until the ends crisp up nice and look like they were torched. Depending on oven and the amount of pans in your oven that might take around a half an hour.

Use what you need and extras can be frozen. Around holiday time I like to top them with a mix of extra brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and some chopped up roasted chestnuts.

It’s Forking Delicious and that’s The Forking Truth