Yen Can Cook: Chicken Stew with Preserved Vegetable (Mui Choy)
Preserved vegetables or preserved mustard green aka Mui Choy (梅菜) I’m going to use in my recipe today is normally cooked with pork belly (Hakka Simmered Pork Belly with Mui Choy梅菜焖猪肉), which is a popular Hakka delight. My mom is a “Hakka moi” so I grew up eating her home-cooked Moi Choy Pork Belly which I think is one of the comfort food I like most during my childhood day, even until now. Hakka dishes are always incorporate with 3 principle taste of Salty, Fatty and Fragrant, this is because Hakka people used to do a lot of farming and laboring works which rendering a huge loss of salt content in body when sweating. So more salt is added to food and food with high salt content preserves longer. These qualities meet the thrifty and hardworking nature of the Hakkas. Basic and humble without much refinement is very well describe the Hakka cuisine.
Since hubby and Sam not fan of pork belly, so I replace it with chicken and the result is equally tantalizing.
Ingredients (Serve: 4-5)
400g chicken, cut into pieces
100g sweet preserved vegetable (甜梅菜)
150g salted preserved vegetable (咸梅菜)
3 – 4 dried Shiitake mushrooms, soak in water until soft, removethe stem then cut into slices
4 to 5 slices ginger
7 to 8 cloves garlic
½ tbsp oyster sauce
1½ tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp sesame oil
15g rock sugar
400ml water
Cooking oil
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Step 1: Wash both preserved vegetable thoroughly and soak in water for 30-45 minutess to get rid of excessive salt and sand.
Step 2: Rinse and squeeze dry the preserved vegetable as much as possible, cut into small pieces. Heat up wok WITHOUT any oil and pan fry the preserved vegetable with medium heat until you can smell the aroma, and it looked dry. Dish up and set aside.
Step 3: In the same frying pan, add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and pan-fry the chicken pieces on both sides till slightly browned. Dish up and set aside.
Step 4: In a pot or deep wok, add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, add garlic and ginger, fry till fragrant. Then add the mushroom slices, chicken pieces (Step 3), preserved vegetable (step 2) and all the seasonings. Stir-fry for a minute.
Step 5: Add in water, bring the mixture to boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer the chicken and preserved vegetable for 30 – 45 minutes. Serve.
It’s best eaten a day after you cook it. I packed some for my bento lunch the next day and it was so much tastier and so full of flavour.
HAPPY COOKING!
Oh yum! What i did most when i was in australia was to cook the chicken (with dark soy sauce), mushrooms with rice, like claypot chicken rice. I will then box them up and micro-wave whenever I have classes 😀
Yes, dishes like mine and yours can cook more then keep in fridge 😛
I love this dish but would avoid all the wobbly fat and pick out only the lean and tender meat…hehe! 😉 My mother-in-law would cook it and add a can of stewed pork that brings the taste to a whole different level. I’ve not eaten a chicken version though but as long as there’s mui choy, I like.
I cooked with chicken so no need to pick out the fatty part 😛 Add stewed pork definitely something new to me!
That looks delicious and I bet I would enjoy it a lot! I have not cooked with mui choy but have tasted a dish at chap fan stall. I liked it a lot.
Try to cook this since you like the taste of the mui choy, or you prepare the original Hakka version of using pork belly 🙂
Wah yummy, I like mui choy! Eat with porridge or plain rice also very nice!
Yes, I like pickled or preserved vegetables such as mui choy, ham choy & zha choy, hahah!
classic dish that every generation will enjoy and love! 🙂
But my daughter not yet fully accept the taste of the mui choy =.=”
I am very surprised that your hubby is not a fan of pork belly! It is all men’s favourite to eat oink and drink beer till get POT BELLY. Ha ha.
Today I learn that Moi Choy Pork Belly is another delicious Hakka Food. I like many types of Hakka food now.
Yes, he don’t like fat fat meat (but I wonder why he like a fat fat woman like me, haha!!)
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