6-Ingredient Chinese Chicken: Easy Chinese Chicken Recipes for Dinner with Few Ingredients (2024)

FAQs

What is the most popular Chinese chicken dish? ›

General Tso's Chicken is a dish that originated in the Hunan province of China, and it's now a staple in Chinese restaurants around the world. The dish consists of crispy fried chicken that's tossed in a sweet and spicy glaze made from soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, and chili flakes.

How do Chinese Restaurants tenderise chicken? There are actually a few different ways to tenderise chicken the Chinese restaurant way: marinating in a cornstarch/cornflour sludge then deep frying or blanching in water before proceeding to cook in the stir fry.

Chinese restaurants almost always use chicken breast for chicken and broccoli because most Americans prefer white meat. However, if you prefer dark meat, you can use chicken thighs to make a delicious homemade dark meat chicken broccoli with brown sauce.

The best way to keep fried foods crispy? Just place them on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet. If you're frying multiple batches, throw the whole setup into a low oven to keep everything warm as you keep frying and adding to the rack.

The ideal old hen is at least 2 years old, preferably 3-4 years old—more time to develop the intense chicken flavor old hen is known for. Its older, stronger bones concentrate the savoriness and stand up better to stewing. The matured fat aromatizes into something altogether more… chickeny.

Chow mein is not only one of the most popular dishes in China, but it has also become a signature dish at Chinese restaurants all around the world. With stir-fried noodles, and your choice of sauteed tofu, vegetables, or meat, Chow mein has become an easy and reliable meal to be savored and enjoyed.

Velveting meat is a Chinese cooking technique used in Chinese restaurants. The process of velveting is one where you marinate raw meat in cornstarch and egg white or bicarbonate of soda to give it a soft, slippery, velvety texture.

Though it's virtually flavorless, cornstarch is easily one of the most vital ingredients in a Chinese kitchen, with multiple uses, including thickening sauces, gravies, and soups.

This is how to tenderise beef with a Chinese restaurant method called “velveting beef”. Also used for chicken, it's a simple, highly effective technique using baking soda that transforms economical beef so it's incredibly tender in stir fries and stir fried noodles.

Oyster sauce is commonly used in Chinese food and adds a savory, salty, umami flavor. Both can be found in most grocery stores. If you like, you can add grated or minced ginger or garlic. Serve your homemade brown sauce with a beef, chicken, or pork stir-fry or chow mein dish.

What sauce do Chinese restaurants use? ›

Soy sauce (jiàng yóu, 酱油), the most common of Chinese sauces, sounds simple, and for the most part, it is. However, there are many types, each unique to different Asian cuisines (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc.).

In a bowl, combine soy sauce, broth, rice wine, sugar, sesame oil and white pepper. (See note in intro about the soy sauce). Dissolve the cornstarch in 1/4 cup water. Heat a pan over high heat; add the cooking oil, swirling to coat; add the garlic and ginger; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 15 seconds.

When paired with all-purpose flour, cornstarch helps prevent gluten development, which makes the flour coating crispier, and absorb moisture (from the frying and the chicken), which also means a crispier coating. If you already have a favorite fried chicken recipe, try replacing a quarter of the flour with cornstarch.

Have you ever wondered how Chinese restaurants get their chicken to be so tender and moist-looking? Velveting is the secret! It gives the chicken that silky texture, with retained moisture and flavor from the marinade. It also protects the chicken from the hot wok, yielding juicy chicken.

My not-so-secret tip to the best fried chicken is a combination of FLOUR, CORNSTARCH, and BAKING POWDER. When mixed with the flour, the cornstarch makes the flour coating crispier and gives it that golden brown color! (It has to do with prevention of gluten development.)

Butter chicken (Murgh makhani)