Velvet chicken or Chinese chicken fillet

Velvet chicken or Chinese chicken fillet

Category: Meat dishes

Kitchen: chinese

Ingredients
Chicken fillet	400 g
Corn starch	1 tbsp. l
Egg white	1 PC
Rice wine - shaoxing, sake (you can dry white, sherry)	1 tbsp. l
Vegetable oil (in marinade and water for boiling)	2 tbsp. l
Salt	1 / 4-1 / 2 h. L

Cooking method

• Velveting, "velveting" is a technology for preparing semi-finished meat products used by chefs in most Chinese restaurants to preserve juiciness and give meat pieces a delicate, silky texture. The “velvet” method is used not only for chicken breast fillets, but also for other types of meat, as well as for fish. For me this method is new, maybe it will be interesting for you too.
• Many have probably heard of the use of starch breading in Chinese cuisine, or pre-marinating with the addition of starch, but the main secret of this method - the second main step is to seal the starch marinade by deep-frying blanching or in boiling water with a little oil. In the home version, of course, it is easier, and it is more dietary to cook a chicken semi-finished product in boiling water. Everything is done quickly and easily. The meat turned out to be really unusually soft.
• Prepare chicken fillet for pickling - cut the meat into thin slices or small pieces. It is more convenient to cut slightly frozen fillets. For the marinade, mix the egg white with a spoonful of vegetable oil, salt, rice wine * (see note) and starch to a light suspension. The amount of marinade is designed for a 400 g portion of meat. Carefully mix the marinade into the meat until all the chicken pieces are covered with starch filling, then cover with foil and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
• 
• Now boil water - about 2 liters, add a spoonful of oil to it, reduce the heat to medium (we don't need a strong boil) and carefully add the chicken pieces to the water, stirring constantly with a stick, preventing them from sticking together. We keep on fire for 1-2 minutes. From the marinade, flakes will appear on the surface of the pieces in the water - this is normal, it should be, the required amount has already been absorbed. The meat will turn white during the scalding process, but the inside will remain a little raw.
• If the meat is more than the specified portion, then it is necessary to boil in parts so that the water temperature is optimal and the pieces are heated evenly. It is not necessary to overexpose the meat, otherwise the magic will disappear and the desired tenderness will not work.
• We pour the broth into a colander or take out the fillet with a slotted spoon, remove all the remaining water from the meat (the broth can be used if desired or given to pets, after all, it's almost broth!)
• 
• Our semi-finished product is ready for further use. You can cook from it immediately, or you can put it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 1-2 days or in the freezer for longer storage.
• The semi-finished product is used to cook dishes using the stir-fry technique - for this you need to heat the wok with a little oil and quickly fry the thinly chopped onion (onion or green), add garlic, salt, pepper, well and then any vegetables of your choice are used: carrots (thin straws), bell peppers or green beans, or asparagus, or Chinese cabbage, or zucchini. We keep the vegetables over high heat, stirring constantly for 3-5 minutes, then lay out the meat, stirring, heat for 2-3 minutes, pour in soy sauce, honey if desired, balsamic vinegar to taste. We keep on fire for another 1-3 minutes, try it with salt.
• For a side dish, you can boil rice or noodles.

Cooking program:

pickling and blanching

Note

Despite the simple composition of the marinade, I did not have one of its components, namely rice wine. Some recipes recommend replacing it with dry white wine or sherry. But I don't have that either. Replacing wine with vinegar is strongly discouraged, but as an option, it is suggested to simply use plain water. Thinking, I decided to add a few drops of rice vinegar to a spoonful of water until slightly sour and a drop of sugar.
a source: 🔗
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Another dietary meal
Thanks for the recipe!

[Wiki]

Wiki, thanks for your attention to the recipe! Yeah, it turns out much more dietary than the usual frying of meat.

[Yuliya K]

Yuliya K, what an interesting method, I will definitely try !!!

[Lerele]

Lerele, yes, I also have not come across such a method before, I will be glad if the recipe comes in handy!

What an interesting recipe! I will definitely try! I don't have any such wine either, but I also have rice vinegar. I bought it, but I have no idea how to use it ...

Thank you, Julia, and I'll try!)

How interesting...!!!

[Galina]

Galina, Rita, Elena, girls, thanks for your attention to the recipe! Try it!

thanks, very interesting method! I can imagine how delicious, and that the chicken really turns out to be velvet!

[Yulyash]

Yulyash, a very interesting recipe. Thank you!
I really don't have wine and no decent vinegar, well, okay.
But there is chicken and cornstarch!
Boom to do!
Thank you, Yulenka!

[Marina]

Marina, yeah, fillet pieces are soft and tender!
Ritual, vinegar if you can and drip apple cider!

[Julia]

Julia, I also liked this method of "sealing" when I was searching for Chinese recipes
True, this is useless with soy meat, but I tried to do it with fish

Experts say that Shaoxing wine is simply irreplaceable ... And the Chinese use it everywhere, especially when preparing fish dishes, since this wine is able to completely remove the fishy smell from a dish (the Chinese do not like the aroma of fish very much, so they struggle with it in every possible way). For me, this quality of it became the main one (I also hate fish smells), since the rest of its qualities ... let's just say, they are not gourmet

After all, this is not wine at all in our understanding, but rather a culinary sauce and it is not intended to be consumed as alcohol, but is used only for cooking.
It is made from glutinous rice, wheat and special water (it is clear that the local one is from Lake Jianghu), has a salty taste with notes of sweetness and a slight pleasant astringency. Neither sherry, nor vinegars somehow do not even pull a partial (according to taste, aroma) replacement, but I don’t know sake, because I haven’t tried it ... rather, you can experiment with Mirin ... Well, I’m not in edification, but I think thanks for this opportunity.

I almost forgot: I am far from Moscow, everything is there, but on an Internet I ordered this Shaoxing one without any problems.

[Irina]

Irina, yes, the East is a delicate matter! (c) I also read about this wine, there is a lot of information. It is also called in some places as Shaoxing culinary wine. In sauces, it is possibly preferable, without replacement, for authenticity, for ennobling the taste of the finished dish. But here, as part of the marinade, again according to information from culinary blogs, it plays a role only in liquefying protein for better binding with starch, so it can be seen often replaced without much damage ... But the taste and aroma of the marinade itself is, again, every cook gives his own, someone brings in garlic and other seasonings, someone adds soy sauce, here it is certainly a matter of taste ... Some people manage with a very minimal set - only protein and starch!
If I come across such a wine, I'll try it with it for comparison!
I liked the result, the structure of the meat is completely different, not like with conventional roasting!

[Yulia]

Yulia, East - yes, this is the case

Well, this is not for edification, but I am thinking suddenly who will come in handy ...

..again, according to information from culinary blogs, as part of the marinade, it plays a role only in liquefying protein for better binding with starch, so it can be seen often replaced without much damage ...

Not exactly, Shaoxing wine is also used as umami: its main effect is to emphasize and balance the taste of dishes. And it's better than glutamate supplementation

[Irina]

And it's better than glutamate supplementation

Irina, that's for sure !!

[Yuliya K]

Yuliya K, Julia ... thanks

[Cesaric]

Cesaric, glad you dropped by! Thank you for your attention to the recipe!

Right now I am looking for various options for cooking chicken breast and other dietary meats. The recipe is incomparable. This is delicious!
I have turkey, onions, carrots, soy sauce.

[Marina]

Marina, how glad I am that the recipe came in handy and liked it! Thank you for your feedback and photo report!

Julia, thank you very much for your acquaintance with this recipe, I liked it very much, it was tasty and not troublesome. It is also very convenient that this is a semi-finished product that can be used at any convenient time. The chicken fillet turned out to be so juicy inside, and there are many options for the final dish. In general, an excellent recipe base
I went to the reference, read, it turns out that this way you can make pork and fish. I will definitely try with pork.

[Vika]

Vika, thanks for the tip! I am very glad that I liked this interesting technology! It's also convenient for me that a semi-finished product can be prepared in advance!