Now, enough raving about the chicken and let’s get on to the three-step, stir fried chicken breast meat with Thai basil. Why three step? Well, because it isn’t four steps or one step or any other step. Just three easy steps. You slice the chicken, marinade the chicken and stir fried the chicken. Oh, yeah. There is a fourth step. You EAT the chicken.

Okay, okay, enough rambling on and on. I know you are here only for the chicken. Err…chicken recipes, I mean.

Chicken breast recipes: Stir fried chicken with basil

Ingredients

1 piece chicken breast meat (about 200g, I think), sliced thinly

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

(and if you are concerned over the almost excessive use of sauces, just use those no-MSG, low sodium, organic, healthy, lowwhatever kinds. But please, don’t skimp on the sauces, it is what made the whole dish flavorful.)

A handful of Thai basil leaves (in case you are wondering, here’s what it looks like below:)

2 tbsp diced garlic

2 tbsp cooking oil (go ahead, use olive oil if you want, that’s what I use all the time)

The Three-step Stir Fried Chicken with Basil

1. Marinade the chicken with the sauces and add the leaves too (rub the leaves in to release its beautiful scent) for about an hour or so or less, however long you want.As long as you marinade it, it is good enough.

2. Heat up oil in wok, sautée the garlic till fragrant and then dump in the chicken together with the basil leaves.

3. Final, crucial step: Stir fry the chicken till it is cooked through. That will be between 5 minutes to 10 minutes depending on your heat but please don’t cook it over high heat or else you may risk burning it.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot the fourth even MORE IMPORTANT step…

Serve it up hot and eat it!

Due to our eternal love (or so it seemed) for chicken and chicken breast meat, do stay tuned or better still, SUBSCRIBE to this blog for more healthy, wholesome chicken breast recipes. Really. No tricks. And yes, I also offer some sinful unhealthy selections of chicken recipes and other recipes too. This is not exactly a chicken recipes site or anything. I promise. We do eat other stuffs too.

I highly recommend these sauces to use with this recipe:

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To get the curried baked chicken breast, I rubbed some chili powder onto the chicken breast meat first before I add the curry paste. So, for sure, this dish is as hot and spicy as I wanted it to be! So, you see, baked chicken need not be bland or plain. It can be crunchy and now it can be spicy with curry flavours!

I am sure, by now, you must be wondering why I have so many baked chicken breast recipes in recent times. Well, lets just say I needed to revamp the way we eat and add in more healthy, wholesome and non-oily food. Baked chicken breast is probably one of the healthiest dishes I could think of as it has minimal oil and thus, less calories compared to frying. Also, it is easy to prepare. Just season, pop into the oven and it is ready to eat!

Now, lets get on with it….

Chicken recipes: Curried Baked Chicken Breast Recipe

Ingredients

150g chicken breast meat, cut into strips

2 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp sea salt

4 tbsp curry paste

1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1. Clean the chicken, drain and pat dry. Cut into long, thin strips so that it cooks easily. Season the chicken with the salt and chili powder.

2. Rub the curry paste all over the chicken.

3. Place the chicken strips onto a tray covered by foil. Drizzle it with some olive oil and bake in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. Then turn over and bake for another 10 minutes. It’s done when it looks like this:

To really test if it is done, just pick a larger piece and nudge the centre with a fork. If it is all white inside with clear juices, it is done. If there’s still a hint of pink, then pop it back into the oven and bake for a few more minutes. Just be careful you don’t over-cook it or else you’d get some really tough and hard chicken breast meat!

I’d say it goes great with some brown unpolished rice and green veg. However, how you like to eat it is entirely up to you as it can also be made into chicken salad or as a main dish with potatoes and salad as sides.

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Now, I did mention that quinoa is a pretty versatile grain to cook with. You can pretty much cook it with anything you want. Since I am into making homemade burgers, I thought, hey I could use quinoa in my burgers instead of oatmeal or oat bran. Well, this time, instead of burgers per se, I made it smaller, so it is more like bite-size nuggets than burgers.

For the nuggets, I combined the best of four worlds: salmon, chicken, fresh herbs and quinoa. Also, I fried it in extra virgin olive oil. Yep, it is as healthy as I want it to be. Now, on to the recipe…

Quinoa, Salmon and Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients

1/4 cup cooked quinoa (instructions to cook quinoa is below)

100g grilled salmon, flaked

8 tbsp minced chicken meat

4 tbsp mixed fresh herbs, finely chopped (I used rosemary, sweet basil and oregano but you can use any herbs of your choice)

1 egg, lightly whisked

Seasoning

3 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp sea salt

1 tbsp chili powder (optional)

dash of black pepper

Instructions

1. Stir together the mixed herbs with the minced chicken.

2. Add in the cooked quinoa and grilled salmon.

3. Add the seasoning then, mix it all together.

4. Add in the whisked egg and stir to combine.

5. Heat up the olive oil in a wok or pan.

6. Scoop a spoonful and slide it into the hot oil

7. Flip over when the bottom turns brown and fry it till both sides are brown

And the quinoa nuggets are ready to be served!

Of course, for a more localised taste, you can always add some chili and curry…

How to cook quinoa:

1. Soak the grains for up to an hour. Rinse and drain several times. Use a fine mesh sieve to drain easily.

2. Either cook in a pot over the stove or in rice cooker. For every cup of quinoa you need two cups of boiling water.

3. Stove top cooking – just let it simmer, covered, over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Then turn off heat and let it stand covered for another 5 minutes.

It is cooked when it has almost doubled in size and looks almost like fish roe.

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Firstly, sorry for the silence…I don’t know why but time seems to move so fast and before I know it, it has been almost a week since I last updated this blog! Time sure do flies, it is already my birthday and I felt as if I just celebrated my last birthday.

Sigh…one year older, a tonne more wrinkles, an even more sluggish metabolic rate, more food turning into padding on my hips and waist…I will have to say, I don’t feel any wiser than last year except more tired, more fat, more sleepy, more grumpy, more work to do…still, I did have more fun with this blog and my personal blog, I did make some money through my blogging efforts, I still have very dark hair with no white ones in sight, I am still fit enough to go for a jog, to waltz around the house with Mr Picky like a three-year-old while carrying him (and let me tell you, he is close to 15kg!), I am still healthy as an ox (how fitting since it is the ox-year and all…), I am still taking most things in my stride and thankfully, I am still NOT nagging anyone despite the ‘training’ sessions by Mr Picky.

Though I am still inclined to ramble on and on…darn…heheheh…okay, okay, let’s get to the main thing of this post before I bore all of you to tears.

*Salmon and Chicken Burgers*

I bought one whole salmon again and had a lot of salmon to cook so, one of the ways I could think of cooking it is to turn it into a burger. Yep. The best part about this burger is that it is not purely a salmon burger but a mix of chicken breast meat and salmon burger with oats. So, it is pretty healthy considering it has salmon and oats, both of which are fat burning food, not to mention heart-friendly too.

So, here’s the recipe for

Healthy Salmon and Chicken Burger

Ingredients

4 tbsp instant oats

2 pcs grilled salmon fillet (about 200g), flaked

100g minced chicken breast

1 egg, whisked lightly

Seasoning:

2 tbsp chili powder

2 tbsp garlic powder

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp black pepper

Instructions

1. Season the chicken with the light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Then, place the flaked grilled salmon, minced chicken and instant oats in a plate and mix it all together. Add the rest of the seasoning and mix well.

2. Lightly whisk the egg in a bowl.

3. Pour the egg into the salmon and chicken mixture. Then, mix well.

*Pour the egg into the salmon and chicken mixture and then stir to combine it well*

4. Heat up some cooking oil in a frying pan / wok. Then, slide a ladle-ful of the salmon and chicken mixture into the oil.

5. The patty will start to bubble and when the bottom part starts to turn brown, it is time to flip it over and fry the uncooked side.

When it turns this brown, it is time to remove and drain the oil

6. It is cooked when both sides are a nice brown colour so remove from the oil and drain. It is ready to be served!

These salmon and chicken burgers or patties can be eaten as it is, serve up as main dish, between wholemeal bread for a wholesome, filling sandwich…however you want it! The best part about it is that it does not have the fishy salmon smell at all so to those who don’t like salmon, you won’t even know it is a salmon and chicken burger. It is also slightly spicy but if you prefer it to be extra spicy, just add more chili powder.

*Salmon and Chicken Burgers*

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Beware: This post contains pictures of fried chicken that are definitely NOT healthy nor oil-free nor low-fat so be prepared for some artery-clogging but worth-every-bite sorta recipe!

I love fried chicken. There’s no two ways about it. If you follow this blog, I am sure you’ve probably read my ravings of Uncle Bob’s Fried Chicken. Heck, I even posted my own version of crunchy fried chicken quite a while back.

And now, I’ve found another fried chicken recipe and promptly gave it a try – a la Foong style. Yep, instead of following the full recipe to a T, I did some modifications. I can’t help it, it’s a genetic fault within me somewhere. And anyway, it’s not easy to get most of the ingredients from the original recipe so what am I gonna do? I improvise, of course! This is probably one of my favorite chicken recipes.

Foong-style Spicy Fried Chicken

Heheh…I know, it started out as Spicy Southern Fried Chicken but hey, this is cooking we are talking about. It is all about creativity (and what we have in our kitchen to concoct these masterpieces) so I believe I am allowed some creative license to change it about.

Alright, alright. I’m getting to the recipe already. Do note that I, once again, failed to record and measure the exact amount of ingredients so the amounts listed here are mostly ‘guesstimated’.Do tweak it to suit your portion of chicken.

Here is my:

Spicy Fried Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 chicken, chopped

2 cups vegetable shortening (or more)

For marinade:

1 1/2 cups milk

1 lemon

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp paprika chili flakes

To coat the chicken:

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 cup oat bran (yes, I know…I am obsessed with using oat bran to cook chicken!)

A dash of pepper

A dash of salt

Instructions

1. Clean and dry the chicken. Remove the skin if you are health conscious (although it doesn’t really matter either way since this is deep fried and not exactly a health food).

2.Rub chilli flakes all over the chicken pieces

3. Place the chicken in a plastic bag.

3. Pour in the marinade and shake the chicken around to make sure it is well mixed

Note: For the marinade, it was supposed to be buttermilk but sadly, we don’t have that easily available here. So, I improvised. I read somewhere that to make buttermilk, we just need to add lemon and milk together so that’s what I did! I pour in the milk and then squeeze in the lemon juice.

4. Let it marinade for several hours or it is even better to leave it in the fridge overnight, which is what I did.

5. The next day, get your marinated chicken out of the fridge

6. In a separate plate, mix up the dry ingredients that will be used to coat the chicken

7. Coat the chicken pieces with the dry flour mix

8. Heat up your pan and pour in the vegetable shortening. Wait for it to melt and thoroughly heat up.

9. Gently slide your coated chicken pieces into the hot vegetable shortening

10.Fry the chicken till it is golden brown

Note: if you use a deep-fryer, it will be easier and you don’t have to turn the chicken all the time to make sure it is completely cooked. Since I don’t use a deep fryer and I don’t like putting a lot of oil / vegetable shortening to really deep fry the chicken,  I have to turn the chicken every now and then. I also kept the heat at medium to make sure it doesn’t burn the chicken.

11. The chicken is cooked when it is really golden brown, so remove from the oil and drain on a wire rack

A closer look at the fabulously crunchy fragrant fried chicken!

However, to test whether it is completely cooked, you could poke the flesh with a skewer and if it comes away easily showing white flesh, then it is cooked. Just like the picture below…

Spicy fried chicken ready to serve!

Now, if you prefer it to be more spicy, you could follow the original spicy southern fried chicken recipe or add a few tablespoons of paprika chili flakes.

I find that if you marinade the chicken overnight, it leaves the flesh extremely tender and juicy on the inside. The homemade buttermilk managed to soften it and at the same time give it a crunchiness that I simply love!

Hah, KFC, eat your heart out! I think my chicken is way better than the miserable tiny bite-size fried chicken that fastfood has been serving in recent times. Keep a lookout for more chicken recipes and even chicken breast recipes in future here.

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When I cook, I usually cook small portions that are just enough for three of us and sometimes, I’d have a bit more just in case either of the two men at home wants to eat more. It is not easy trying to figure out what to cook even when I only cook twice a week, during the weekends. Usually, I’d go for something simple and easy so as to be able to get lunch ready within an hour or so.

For a simple and yet nutritious lunch, some healthy chicken breast recipes and vegetables goes great with plain steamed rice:

Stir Fried Minced Chicken

Simple stir-fried Toh Miau

These go very well with rice for a simple and easy lunch. Here are the recipes:

Chicken breast recipes: Stir-fried Minced Chicken Breast Meat

Ingredients

1 pc of chicken breast meat (about the size of your palm), minced or about 200gm

2 celery stalks, chopped into small pieces

1 small carrot, cubed

5 small fresh shiitake mushrooms

3 tbsp soya sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

half clove garlic, peeled and chopped

Instructions

1. Season the chicken with the sauces and a dash of pepper for about 30 minutes or so.

2. In a wok, heat up some cooking oil and sautee the garlic till fragrant.

3. Add the minced chicken and sautee for till it is almost cooked through.

4. Add the carrots, celery and mushrooms.

5. Stir fry over medium heat till the chicken is cooked through and remove from heat. Add about 2 tbsp of water if it’s too dry. Let it boil first before removing from heat.

6. Best to serve warm.

Simple stir-fried Vegetables / Asian Alfalfa (Toh Miau)

Simple stir-fried Toh Miau

Ingredients

100gm vegetables (toh miau), or any green leafy vegetables of your choice

half clove garlic, peeled and chopped

3 – 4 tbsp oyster sauce

Instructions

1. Heat up cooking oil in a wok and sautee the garlic till fragrant.

2. Add the vegetables. Stir fry for a few seconds over medium heat.

3. Add the sauce and about 3 tbsp of water. Stir fry for several more minutes.

4. Once the vegetables are cooked through, remove from heat. Be careful not to overcook the vegetables or else all its nutritions will be lost.

The portions above are great for two to three people to be served with rice. Preparation time is quite minimal and the food could be ready in under an hour. These dishes are quite healthy too since it is stir fried and cooked with minimal oil.

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I cook on most weekends and sometimes I’d be too busy to prepare complicated dishes so I’d usually cook something simple, easy and healthy too. So, I tried out some of my chicken breast recipes.

Simple stir-fried chicken

It is a very simple and easy recipe. Most important of all, it is healthy and tasty too. Here’s the recipe:

Chicken breast recipes: Simple Stir-fried Chicken

Ingredients

1 pc deboned chicken breast meat, sliced thinly into strips

1 stalk spring onion, roughly chopped

Half clove garlic, diced

2- 4 red chillies, cut and seeded (if you don’t want it to be too spicy)

1 small onion, peeled and chopped

Instructions

1. Season the chicken strips with some soya sauce and oyster sauce.

2. Heat up some cooking oil in a wok

3. Sautee the garlic and onion for a few minutes or till brown

4. Add the onions and chillies and sautee for a while.

5. Add the chicken.

6. Sautee until fragrant. Remove from heat and serve with rice.

Simple stir-fried chicken

Make sure you do not overcook or else the chicken will tend to be stringy and dry. Also, to soften the meat, use a meat tenderizer (the utensil, not the seasoning).

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Since I am quite used to cooking without measuring out the ingredients so I will try to estimate the measurements of the ingredients used as accurately as possible.

Ingredients

1/4 Chicken

Salt to season the chicken

2 tbsp dried wolfberries (kei chi / kee chee)

6 – 7 Fresh shiitake mushrooms

1 big onion, peeled and diced

Half clove of garlic, peeled and diced

3 inches of fresh ginger, sliced thinly

1 carrot, chopped

2 small ripe tomatoes, sliced

1 tbsp Sesame Oil

Instructions

1. Clean and then season the chicken with salt for about an hour or so. Don’t use too much salt or else the chicken may become too salty.

2. Use half of the garlic to fry in normal cooking oil to prepare your own fragrant garlic oil.

3. Place chicken on heatproof bowl / dish.

4. Place all the ingredients on the chicken and arranged it all around the chicken. Pour the sesame oil and garlic oil (including the fried garlic) on top.

5. Place the whole dish on a pot of boiling water. Cover and let it steam for 30 to 40 minutes over low fire.

6. The chicken is cooked through when you use a skewer or fork to tear the meat and it comes away from the bone easily and there are no traces of blood.

The resulting sauce on the dish is really tasty and is what we called real chicken stock!

However, itcould be oily too if the chicken used is particularly ‘fat’ with loads of fat beneath the skin.

So, it is advisable to search for ’skinny’ chicken or those with less fat. Please do not remove the skin before cooking as it will dry out the chicken and somehow, the chicken does not taste just as nice as when you cook it with skin intact.

What I usually do is to lift up the skin and try to remove as much discernible fat as I possibly could before seasoning the chicken. For those concerned about cholesterol and fat, you can discard the skin after it is cooked before consuming.

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