Velveted strips of chicken fillet are tossed with julienned vegetables and cooked in a sauce made with lemon juice, honey, garlic, chilies and kaffir lime leaves.
Cook’s notes
What does velveted mean? It means marinating the chicken in a mixture of seasonings, liquid, oil and starch. As the chicken sits overnight in the fridge, these ingredients change the texture of the meat and makes it a soft, bouncy and slippery.
Velveting is a popular preparation technique in Chinese cooking. I didn’t use to bother thinking that it couldn’t be a big deal. I have since changed my mind. Velveting is a big deal. It makes a simple homecooked dish as good as restaurant food. Yes, really. So, don’t skip it.
The sweet-sour-salty sauce is a mixture of three tablespoons lemon juice, two tablespoons honey and a teaspoon of fish sauce. Feel free to tweak the ratio for a balance that pleases your palate.
Lemon honey chili garlic chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 ½ cups chicken breast fillet skin on, cut into thin strips
- 2 tablespoons potato starch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
- 2 tablespoons Shao Xing wine or substitute cooking sake
Vegetables
- 1 carrot peeled and julienned
- 1 chayote peeled, cored and julienned
- 1 shallot peeled and thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic peeled, chopped and divided into two portions
Sauce
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice or lime or calamansi juice
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 2 pairs kaffir lime leaves midribs removed and leaves thinly sliced
- 1 bird’s eye chili thinly sliced
To cook and garnish
- 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil must have a high smoke point
- sliced scallions
Instructions
- Place the chicken in a mixing bowl.
- Mix together the starch, salt, sesame seed oil and wine. Pour over the chicken and mix well.
- Transfer the chicken to a covered container and allow to “velvet” for an hour or up to overnight in the fridge.
- Prep all the vegetables.
- Make the sauce by stirring together all the ingredients plus half of the chopped garlic.
- Heat the oils in a wok or frying pan.
- With the heat set to medium, spread the velveted chicken in the hot oil. Use chopsticks or kitchen tongs to separate them.
- Cook the chicken for a minute or two, or until the surface turns glossy.
- Turn up the heat to high, and add the chayot, carrot, shallot and remaining garlic. Stir fry for half a minute.
- Pour in the sauce and stir.
- Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has been soaked up.
- Garnish with scallions and serve.
Blanched napa cabbage salad