Category: Poultry

assemble tomato egg noodle bowl

Non-Spicy / Noodles / Plant / Poultry / Vegetarian

Easy Tomato Egg Noodles ft. Dried Knife-Cut Noodles

Pan-China Comfort Food You may be familiar with the classic Chinese tomato egg stir-fry, but have you ever tried it with noodles? This kid-friendly dish uses just a handful of fresh ingredients, making it perfect for last-minute meals. In the olden days (that is, pre-pandemic price inflation), one could look to the fridge and invariably find at least one egg and a tomato ripe for sacrifice. With egg markups so high now, I’m far more selective about what I’ll crack an egg over. Bored quarantine baking = out. Quick, easy...

Noodles / Plant / Poultry / Restaurant Classics / Soups & Stews

Yangzhou Dazhu Gansi (Simmered Tofu Noodles, 大煮干丝) | Zoe Yang

A Jiangnan test of skill~~ There is no dish more exemplary of Jiangnan cuisine than the Yangzhou classic 大煮干丝 (dàzhǔ gānsī), simmered tofu noodles. Every ingredient is an homage to the Yangtze River Delta—duck gizzards, miniature river shrimp, slivers of chicken and rich Jinhua ham, baby greens, fresh mushrooms and, of course, the tofu itself. I didn’t know all this on the first day of cooking school in Nanjing, 12 years ago, when I came to class dutifully toting the above ingredients. In fact, the other reason—perhaps the main reason—my...

Plant / Poultry

How to Make Chinese Tea Eggs (Chayedan, 茶叶蛋)

Marbled Tea-Boiled Eggs~~ A skill I’ve gradually accepted as necessary in my life is learning how to make Chinese tea eggs. These fractured “tea leaf eggs”, 茶叶蛋 (cháyèdàn), continue brewing through an overnight marinade of black tea, aromatic spices and soy sauce that seeps into each crack, creating its beautiful stained glass veneer. Soy saucey and tea-fragrant without being overpowering, chayedan previously came to me by the dozen (if not hundred). Out of stockpots, massive vats of never-ending tea egg, volunteer aunties might dole one out on our post-service Sunday...

Poultry

Classic Chinese Steamed Egg (Zhengdan, 蒸蛋)

Universal Chinese Comfort Food~~ It doesn’t matter how far removed you are from the mainland in the Chinese diaspora: At some point, a relative made you this Chinese steamed egg dish, and now it reappears in your thoughts and dreams every time you’re sick or ailing. Flu? Steamed egg. Broken toe? Steamed egg. Strep throat in June the week before graduation? Steamed egg. Heck, I got a cavity filled at home last year and what did Ma make when I came back hungry and numb? Steamed egg. I grew up calling...

How to Cook With Chinese Black Vinegar / Poultry

Sichuan Vinegar Chicken (Culiuji, 醋溜鸡)

A Fully Stocked Pantry, So You Can Make Left-Behind Dishes~~ Newly added to our blog trove of under-appreciated mainland dishes is this recipe for 醋溜鸡 (cùliūjī), Sichuan vinegar chicken. Not red, not hot, not numbing nor loud, Sichuan vinegar chicken speaks to the range of regional cooking often left behind in the diasporic new world.  No one is at fault for this. If you only eat Sichuan a couple times a year, I’m sure you want your favorites—the quintessentially, exaggeratedly, unmistakably Sichuan flavors everyone associates with the province. And if you’re...

Shaoxing Drunken Chicken

Cold Dishes / How to Cook With Shaoxing Wine / Poultry / Restaurant Classics

Shaoxing Drunken Chicken (Zuiji, 醉鸡) | Zoe Yang

A Classic Jiangnan Cold Dish~~ It’s a rare occasion that I get to write a Jiangnan recipe with zero familial baggage. Blame the Methodists who converted my family into teetotalers sometime in the late 1800s, but when I called my mother to ask about Drunken Chicken, she asked, “Is it made with 酒糟 (jiǔzāo)?” Close, but no. Drunken Chicken (醉鸡, zuìjī), a stalwart of the Chinese poached chicken oeuvre, is made by marinating cooked chicken in 黄酒 (huángjiǔ), yellow wine—most famously the huangjiu from Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. Jiuzao refers to...

Bao & Dumplings / Pork / Poultry / Soups & Stews

Danjiao (蛋饺) Egg Dumplings ft. Pork and Ramps

Taste of Jiangnan: Egg-Skin Dumplings~~ 蛋饺 (dànjiǎo), or egg dumplings, have long been a mainstay of Chinese New Year banquets across the southeastern regions of China. Elders will tell you it’s because danjiao look like lucky gold ingots/”sycees”(金元宝, jīn yuánbǎo). I think the practical reason is that they demand so much attention and time! See, to make danjiao, you basically have to make a tiny omelet in a ladle, lay a tiny quenelle of pork filling in the middle, and then oh-so-gently fold one edge of the omelet over the...

A white bowl of dunjitang served with wontons and mushrooms and greens

Poultry / Soups & Stews

Clarified Old Hen Soup (Dunjitang, 炖鸡汤)

All-Purpose Golden Broth for Soup, Noodles, Chaoshou and More~~ Documenting my mother’s recipe for 炖鸡汤 (dùnjītāng), stewed chicken soup, made me wonder what you can tell about someone from how they process a whole bird. It all starts with deducing a person’s qualities from the kind of chicken immediately at stake, a brand of kitchen table checkers I cherish. Someone who already had what they needed in the freezer is likely not just a regular cook, for example, but also a confident one—they don’t need to know the fate of...

yunnan mushroom hot pot

Chinese New Year / How to Cook With Chinese Spices / Non-Spicy / Plant / Poultry / Restaurant Classics / Soups & Stews / Southwest (Sichuan, Yunnan)

No Sweet Sour: Yunnan Mushroom Hotpot (Huoguo, 火锅)

Wild Mushroom Heaven I was so thrilled when I received the gorgeous handmade brass hotpot from The Mala Market. Finally, I could prepare a proper Yunnan mushroom hotpot in Norway! I love hotpot (火锅, huǒguō) not only because it is a fun way to cook food, but also because hotpot brings to mind a warm sense of social gathering. Whenever I meet old friends back in Kunming, we often share a hotpot meal while catching up with each other. Hotpot varies depending on the different geographic regions of China. In...

Yunnan Liang Mixian (Cold Rice Noodles)

Cold Dishes / How to Cook With Sesame / Noodles / Plant / Poultry / Restaurant Classics / Southwest (Sichuan, Yunnan)

No Sweet Sour: Yunnan Liang Mixian (Cold Rice Noodles, 凉米线)

Pretend You’re South of the Clouds Here’s a recipe for Chinese cold rice noodles from the land where they do liang mixian best, plus a trick for making dried rice noodles taste like the thick, bouncy fresh ones of Yunnan. Text and photos by Michelle Zhao Cold rice noodles (凉米线, liáng mǐxiàn) is a summer dish that Yunnan people are especially fond of. Every city has its own style of liang mixian, but my top three are from Yuxi, Dali and Kunming. The distinguishing characteristic of Yuxi cold rice noodles is...

Braises / How to Cook With Doubanjiang / How to Cook With Dried Chilies / How to Cook With Soy Sauce / Noodles / Poultry / Restaurant Classics

Xinjiang Big Plate Chicken (Dapanji, 大盘鸡) | Sarah Ting-Ting Hou

Big Plate, Big Flavors While dapanji is not a Sichuan dish, Big Plate Chicken, as it’s translated in English, is very much at home in Chengdu and has several ingredients in common with Sichuan stews and braises. It gets a bit of heat from Sichuan pepper and doubanjiang but also shows its Xinjiang roots by featuring smoky cumin and fat  wheat noodles.  This recipe was created by Sarah Ting-Ting Hou, a restaurant professional who moved from Beijing to Nashville a couple years ago. Like all Chinese-food lovers here, she has...

Sichuan Sauce for Grilling from The Mala Market

Beef, Lamb & Game / How to Cook With Doubanjiang / Pork / Poultry

Cooking With Pixian Doubanjiang: Sichuan Sauce for Grilling & Roasting

A New ‘Cue I’m not sure why I’d never thought before to add Pixian chili bean paste to my grilling marinade, because it’s a match made in BBQ heaven. Douban is a combination of salt, spice and umami (in the form of fermented fava beans). Meat loves salt, most people reading this love spice, and everyone loves umami, so douban ticks all the boxes. It’s a BBQ sauce like you’ve never had before, but it doesn’t hit you over the head with any of those sensations, enhancing the meat without...