Chicken thigh

Chicken and Hokkien noodles

Hello readers,

I hope you’ve enjoyed your week. This week’s post is quick and easy because I don’t have much time. 

Recipe

Equipment

  • Water heater circulator
  • Water bath
  • Wok

Ingredients

  • Chicken thigh
  • Red onion
  • Shallot
  • Ginger
  • Shiitake mushrooms [1, 2]
  • Laksa paste [3]
  • Coconut milk
  • Chillies
  • Carrot
  • Fennel
  • Hokkien noodles

Instructions

Chicken thigh

  1. Seal a chicken thigh with the skin attached and seasoned with salt in a plastic bag.
  2. Heat a water bath to 76 °C and then cook the chicken in the water for 2 hours.
  3. Refrigerate the chicken after it has cooked.
  4. Pull the meat from the bones and break up the muscle bundles. Place the pulled chicken thigh aside in a bowl and gnaw the bones to avoid wasting meat.
  5. Place the cooking liquor into a small saucepan.

Mushrooms

  1. Remove the mushrooms from the packaging and place them into a bowl.
  2. Add a cup of water to the small saucepan with the cooking liquor from the chicken.
  3. Boil the contents of the saucepan and then turn off the heat.
  4. Pour the liquid over the mushrooms and let the mushrooms steep for about half an hour.
  5. Remove the mushrooms and set them aside.

Noodles

  1. Remove the noodles from the packaging and place them into a bowl.
  2. Boil the saucepan with the mushroom and chicken juices and pour over the noodles.
  3. With wooden tongs or chopsticks, break up the noodles and drain them when they feel soft.
  4. Keep the cooking liquor aside.

Soup

  1. Finely chop a shallot and red onion.
  2. Mince some ginger.
  3. Slice a chilli.
  4. Slice the fennel.
  5. Julienne the carrot.
  6. Slice the spring onion.
  7. Shake the tin of coconut cream and open it.
  8. Heat the wok and then add some oil.
  9. Sauté the onions, shallot, and ginger.
  10. Add a tablespoon of laksa paste (more or less depending on how you like it).
  11. Add the mushrooms and slowly add the cooking liquor used for the noodles, mushrooms, and chicken.
  12. Allow the liquid to reduce a little to concentrate the flavours.
  13. Toss in the chicken meat and stir it around.
  14. Pour in the coconut cream and turn down the heat.
  15. Bring the cream to a gentle simmer, and then add in the carrot and some of the firmer slices of spring onion.
  16. Add the noodles and mix everything with a pair of chopsticks or wooden tongs.
  17. Turn the heat off and mix through chilli and more spring onions.
  18. Transfer everything to a bowl and garnish with the remaining spring onions.
  19. Give thanks to the Lord.
  20. Eat with chopsticks and a spoon.

Thoughts on the meal

This meal was enough for two people, so I refrigerated half of it, and the next day I heated the remaining soup in a saucepan and served it the same way I had the night before.

I didn’t want to label this meal anything other than chicken and Hokkien noodles. You could make this with any sort of Asian style flavouring you have around. I know many people would add garlic. I didn’t have any, and I’m not fussed about garlic in my food. If I have garlic, I’ll use it, but it’s not a big deal to omit it. 

I know that I use some techniques not readily available to everyone. You can substitute different approaches.

For example, you could cook the chicken any way you like so long as you achieve the correct temperature and duration[4]. Not everyone will get sick with inadequately cooked food. However, I commonly see reports of incapacitated people because of poor attention to food safety. You could use a supermarket rotisserie chicken if time is short and your budget permits. Break down the chicken, store it safely, and use it how you want.

I like the idea of using dried foods like mushrooms. I can use a few from a packet in this soup and the rest in other meals. The steeping liquor is also suitable for flavouring other aspects of the cooking process.

Feel free to make modifications and share them.

On food safety, I now have the pleasure of working with someone on a committee I have admired for decades. When I was in my final year of speciality training, this colleague wrote a magnificent review article on the pathogenic forms of Escherichia coli. I read it and memorised it; it was so good. One of my final exam questions was to compare and contrast the pathogenic forms of Escherichia coli. This colleague is now retired but working in an emeritus capacity. 

Final thoughts

  1. How has your week been?
  2. Do you like using dried foods?

Photographs

References

  • 1.         Kim, S.H., et al., Ecofriendly shiitake authentication using bulk and amino acid-specific stable isotope models. Food Chem, 2022. 397: p. 133819.
  • 2.         Berger, R.G., et al., Mycelium vs. Fruiting Bodies of Edible Fungi-A Comparison of Metabolites.Microorganisms, 2022. 10(7).
  • 3.         Peng, Z.F., et al., Antioxidant flavonoids from leaves of Polygonum hydropiper L.Phytochemistry, 2003. 62(2): p. 219-28.
  • 4.         Yang, R., et al., Thermal death kinetics of Salmonella Enteritidis PT30 in peanut butter as influenced by water activity. Food Res Int, 2022. 157: p. 111288.

Roast chicken thigh and tomato-based sauce

Dear Reader,

Happy Canberra Day! Canberra is 109 today. We get a public holiday on Monday, but I’m on-call this weekend, so I’m hoping for not too many calls.

I planned to complete my annual CPDP submission today, but I had a huge lunch, and I’ve felt bloated all afternoon. It’s also stimulated the gas-forming bacteria in my microbiota. There’s a lot of gas formed from glucose metabolism in my enteric bacteria, especially those in the Order: Enterobacterales.

A delicious Dobinsons lamb shank pie is floating in a bowl of spiced pumpkin soup with laksa paste. I made the soup last week.

I’m just a simple bloke, so focussing and farting is not something I can do together. I elected instead to watch a movie on Netflix called The Ice Road starring Liam Neeson. If you like suspenseful drama, it’s worth viewing.

In other news today, I bought a new oven which cooks with microwave radiation. The old model was only 13 years old and developed a problem. The only keys I could use were the number 3 and the start cook button. I’ve been cooking things for 33 seconds, 3 minutes and 33 seconds for the last few months. The new oven is a 1000 W Samsung. Appliances don’t last very long these days.

Ingredients

  • Chicken thigh
  • Sourdough bread
  • White onion
  • Tinned tomatoes (Mutti)
  • Capers
  • Olives
  • Pickled jalapeño peppers
  • Olive oil
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Cooking sherry
  • Red wine
  • Basil

Instructions

  1. Ideally the chicken thigh has been seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper and then vacuum sealed to flavours at least hours beforehand.
  2. Peel and quarter a white onion.
  3. Sweat the onion in a skillet with some vegetable oil. As the onion takes on some colour, add some cooking sherry and then some Worcestershire sauce until the onion begins to caramelise a little.
  4. Add in a small tin of tomatoes and simmer.
  5. As the sauce thickens a little add in the capers, olives, and pickled jalapeño peppers.
  6. Simmer with some stalks of basil and then add a good glug of red wine and simmer.
  7. Turn on the toaster oven to as high as possible.
  8. Lubricate the surface of a baking sheet with some vegetable oil.
  9. Place a piece of sourdough bread in the middle of the baking sheet.
  10. Pour some olive oil over the bread so in the oven it’s like it’s “frying” the bread.
  11. Remove the seasoned chicken thigh from the vacuum sealed bag and place it on the lubricated bread.
  12. Place the bread and chicken into the hot oven and cook on high heat for 10 minutes and then turn the heat down to a low heat and keep cooking for a further 20 minutes.
  13. When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the oven and let it rest for about five minutes.
  14. Place the chicken and toasted/“fried” bread in an shallow bowl and then spoon the tomato sauce around it.
  15. Use a serrated steak knife to eat this because the bread will be stiff and hard.
  16. Give thanks to the Lord and enjoy.

Thoughts on the meal

I cooked the chicken perfectly! It was still succulent and juicy. There was an abundance of juices oozing out from the folds of flesh as I penetrated it with my knife.

The sauce was pretty tasty; I like the acidity of the pickled jalapeño peppers along with the olives and capers. I forgot to add some Swiss brown mushrooms I’d also bought for this meal. The acid cuts through the oil and the chicken fat.

I know I said last week I was trying to reduce my meat consumption. I haven’t forgotten, and I have loved ones reminding me of my health. I’m grateful to them for looking out for me ❤️

Final thoughts

  1. Do you ever cook meat over oil soaked bread?
  2. Does it annoy you when you go somewhere for breakfast and they serve toasted sourdough which is stiff as a board and give you a butter knife?
  3. How has your week been?
  4. How long have you been using your microwave oven?