Ginger Sesame Chicken

This is a recipe I made on a whim because we had leftover chicken and Logan wanted something "ginger-y". This was also the first time I tried to measure out my ingredients instead of just eye-balling everything. I thought maybe if this turned out well, I could put it on the website hehe. Luckily, it tasted really good, so here you guys go!

A little note, the first time I made this, I didn't add any white green onions. As I was making the recipe for this blog, I thought that maybe it would taste more fresh(?) and fragrant with some green onions in it. 

How Do I Eat This?

When I made it the first time, Logan and I were on a diet, so I ate this on a bed of lettuce with a little bit of rice and some Kewpie Mayo. I really like the combo of creamy gingery sesame. Logan just ate it with rice and less lettuce. 

If you are not on a weird diet like we were, this dish goes best with rice and a vegetable side (like any other Chinese dish tbh). I would recommend broccoli, maybe steamed or lightly sauteed with salt. I'm biased towards lettuce, but you're the chef, do your thing~ 

The Recipe

Ingredients

- 5-6 Chicken Thighs || cubed

- 1 tbsp Shao Xing Rice Wine*

- 1 tbsp soy sauce

- 1 tbsp ginger puree*

- 1/2 tbsp minced garlic

- 1 tsp white pepper

- 1 tbsp sesame oil

- 2 stalks green onion || only the white part!*

- sesame seeds || for garnish 

Optionals and Substitutes 

- Shao Xing Rice Wine, you technically don't need it. However, I like to use it in my recipes with chicken or pork because it gets rid of that raw meat smell. If that doesn't bother you, or you don't know what I'm talking about, or if you don't own rice wine, then don't worry too much about it. It does have a slightly sweet smell (taste?) to it, so keep that in mind when you're tasting your dish at the end.

- If you are like me and usually don't like the spiciness of ginger, start with 1/2 tbsp of ginger. This will give you only a hint of ginger. You'll be able to taste that it's there, but it will be very light. The first time I made this, I ended up adding more ginger to the chicken after I tasted it because I wanted the flavor to be more prominent. You could also do it this way if you are nervous about the ginger taste.

    -- You can substitute ginger puree with fresh grated ginger, or ginger powder. I would not recommend ginger slices because then you'd have to cook the ginger (and therefore) chicken longer in order to get the desired flavor. 

- If you want to stretch your meal more (i.e. more portions), replace green onion with regular yellow onions, you'd want about 1/2 a regular-sized onion, cut into a similar size as you cut your chicken (a larger dice or in crescents).

Directions 

1. Cut your chicken into cubes, place them in a bowl for marinating.

2. Add your Shao Xing Rice Wine first, then add soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and white pepper. Mix until combined.

3. Add sesame oil and mix. 

4. Cover the chicken with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to marinate for 3+ hours. (I made this in the morning, let it marinade all afternoon, and cooked it in the evening).

 

5. Once the chicken is marinated, heat up your pan to medium heat and add any neutral oil (bonus points if you have sesame oil that can be used for cooking). 

6. Once the pan is hot, add your green onions and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant. 

7. Add your chicken to the pan and sauté until done. (about 5-7 min)

8. Adjust seasoning as you wish (more ginger? more white pepper?). If you think it tastes great, then skip this step.

9. Turn off the stove, take the pan off the heat, and garnish generously with sesame seeds. 

10. ENJOY!