Martin Yan came to my culinary school a few weeks ago and it was so exciting! My friend, Emily, over at The Front Burner (link in Blogroll) has a great write up and lots of photos from his 3-day extravaganza.
At the time, I was in International Cuisine and we did a lot of the prep work for two big money dinners that Chef Yan was hosting.
As a reward for our hard work, Chef allowed us to attend Chef Yan’s cooking demonstration. That man is unbelievable. He broke down a chicken in 15 seconds. The one that I did took a good 10 minutes (and I was working fairly quickly). He also did this neat trick where he used the flat end of his knife to crush and smear garlic, which resulted in garlic that was somewhere between a paste and minced, but which saved time chopping it.
He had some cookbooks available for sale after the demo, so I bought one for David, knowing how much he loves Asian cuisine. Chef Yan autographed it with, “To my beloved, sexy, caring, loving man David, who is truly amazing and has good taste in food and woman!”
This may come as a shock to some of you, but David is out of the Navy…and I am a very happy camper. I’m not going to get into it (nothing bad, I promise), this just isn’t the outlet for it. But my point in telling you this was to say that, since he’s home, I gave him the cookbook and we made this tangerine chicken recipe together one night.
Now, my husband hasn’t done much cooking in his lifetime besides pressing the “start” button on the microwave. All he needed was a little direction, though, and he was giving me a run for my money. Not that I’m bragging, but my baby can shallow-fry with the best of em. Here’s a photo of the man in action. He’s wearing shades because the sun never sets on being badass (that, and the oil kept splashing and aiming for our eyes).
We both loved this recipe, but had to alter it a bit. I knew that David would go for it because he loves Asian food like some people love their children. I was a little more dubious, but willing to give it a shot. Like most Asian cuisine, the goal was to achieve a balance between the tastes, in this case, spicy and sweet. I think we hit the nail on the head with this one. The trouble we had was finding some of the ingredients. We were too lazy to track down an Asian grocery store, so we had to make do with what we could find on the International aisle at Harris Teeter. Since we didn’t make the true recipe, and since I cost all of these out, the one below is what we made and not Chef Yan’s. They’re mostly the same, he just used dried tangerine peel, dried red chiles, white pepper and sesame seeds.
Tangerine Chicken (adapted from Martin Yan’s China)
Serves 4
For the marinade
1 egg white, beaten
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp rice wine
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced into strips (save money by breaking the chicken down yourself. Here’s how)
For the sauce
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp vegetable oil
4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Everything else
Vegetable oil for frying
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1-in fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
2 green onions cut into 2-in pieces
1/2 small yellow onion, julienned
1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 tsp cool water
Directions
Slice off the ends of the tangerine and supreme (here’s a how-to Citrus Supremes). Cut the peel into long, narrow strips. Place fruit in one bowl and peels in another and set aside.
Combine egg white, cornstarch, rice wine, salt and pepper in a medium bowl and mix until well combined. Add the chicken and stir to coat evenly. Let stand for 10 minutes or until the chicken reaches room temperature.
Combine the orange juice, soy sauce, rice wine, vinegar, 1 tsp vegetable oil, sugar, salt and pepper in a small bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves.
In a cast iron skillet, pour enough oil to come 2/3 of the way up the side of the chicken and heat to 350 (it shouldn’t be smoking heavily, but should have thin, barely visible wisps of smoke coming up). Remove chicken from marinade and fry a few pieces at a time, until golden and crisp. Once cooked, transfer chicken to a paper towel. Reserve oil.
Place a saute pan over high heat until hot. Add reserved oil and swirl to coat. Add the ginger and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add both onions and tangerine peel and saute until onions soften, about 1 minute. Add the sauce and bring to a boil. Add chicken and tangerine supremes and stir to coat. If needed, add cornstarch slurry to thicken sauce, but only do so if the sauce is boiling. If using, stir until sauce thickens.
Transfer to bowls and serve over white rice.
Grand Total: $4.04 (with rice, it’s about $4.50)
