Monday, May 31, 2010

Five-Spice Chicken in Rice Paper



Being a working mother that loves to cook, I relish weekends. It is a time where I could get some time to cook for my family.  I want to be able to leave a legacy of food; food that warms the heart and makes my family feel that they are home. I was lucky to have a stay-at-home mum.  I want my kids to have what I used to have eating at home with my family.

Thus, to prevent myself from falling into a cooking rut, I told myself, for every Sunday dinner that I cook, at least one dish must be new. No cheating, not changed or adjusted, something completely new that my family have never tried. It was not difficult with my library of cookbooks and my passion for cooking. The only criteria was that it should be easy and quick.

So last Sunday, I took a recipe from an old issue of Donna Hay and made Five-Spice Chicken in Rice Paper. I have included the original recipe and included my own adjustments for ingredients and amount. And Donna, it was delish!



Ingredients
3 teaspoons of salt
3 teaspoons of Chinese five-spice powder
4 chicken breast fillets, trimmed
16 small Asian rice paper rounds
2 green onions (scallions), sliced
peanut old for shallow frying

Dipping Sauce
 1/4 cup (2 fl oz) hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce

  1. To make the dipping sauce, combine the hoisin sauce, lemon juice and soy sauce. Set aside.

  2. Combine the salt and Chinese five-spice in a small bowl. Cut the chicken into 4 pieces each and sprinkle with the five-spice salt, coating all sides.

  3. Place 1 rice paper round in a bowl of hot water and soak for 10 seconds or until soft.

  4. Remove and place on a clean tea towel.

  5. Place a piece of chicken one-third of the way from the base of the rice paper and top with some green onion.

  6. Fold over the base and sides of the paper to enclose and roll up into a parcel, leaving the top edge unfolded.

  7. Repeat with the remaining chicken, green onion and rice paper.

  8. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat.

  9. Cook the parcels in batches for 2 minutes each side or until golden and cooked through.

  10. Serve with the dipping sauce and the remaining five-spice salt. Serves 4.




Notes:

  • I halved both the salt and five-spice powder as I was using half the amount of chicken.

  • I bought the rice paper in a big pack of 22cm rounds, I found it too big, resulting in a thicker skin, thus making the rolls less crispy.

  • We call 'scallions' spring onions locally, I could not find this in the NTUC I went to so I replaced it with seasoned seaweed, which was in my larder. I keep this as a staple in my larder as it is great on congee and cold cha soba.

  • For the hoisin sauce, I found it hard to measure 1/4 cup so I used 4 tablespoons. I did not have lemons but did have a bunch of limes, so I replaced the lemon juice with lime juice.

  • Step 2 - I did not bother with using a small bowl. I plonked all the cut chicken in a big mixing bowl and sprinkle in the salt and five-spice to mix.

  • Step 4 - I tried to use kitchen paper - the rice paper would stick.  I switched back to the clean tea towel.

  • Steps 3 - 6 - My daughter helped me (she is eight plus) and did all the wrapping. Great bonding time!

  • Step 6 - It was too finicky trying to leave the top edge unfolded since my daughter was helping. I did it up like a spring roll instead.

  • I make an extra dipping sauce with chili padi, lime juice and soy sauce. Delish!

  • I garnished it with mint leaves from my own plants!

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