Emperor Chicken Triple Play

Emperor Chicken is one of local soup delicacy that is commonly found in chinese soup stall in Singapore. It is similar to western chicken soup with the exception many chinese herbs are added to the soup. These herbs really help rejuvenate the tired soul and I can vouch for it. I always order it when I need a pick me up after a day of battle in the corporate jungle. The soup easily price from $4.50 to $5.50 or more depending on dining location. I decide to whip up my own version of Emperor Chicken (an excuse cook up to cut expenses during recession) and co-incidental create 2 spin-off dishes from it.

Emperor Chicken

• 400 - 500 gm of  Chicken Thigh (about 3 to 4 pieces)
• Emperor Chicken Herb Mix (get A1 Brand if available as their spices are blend finer)
• Chinese Cooking Wine or Mirin (Optional)
  
• Salt
• Baby Carrot or Enoki Mushroom
• Maggie Non- MSG Liquid Chicken Stock (Optional)
• Microwave Proof Glade Wrap (Can get it cheap at $2 at Daiso) 
  

Emperor Herb Mix can easily be found in all local supermarket like Giant, Sheng Siong, Cold Storage, Shop`N'Save and NTUC. Unlike those sold in soup stall, the Emperor Chicken herbs are blend into fine powder so that you can pre-marinate the chicken so that it can be imbue with the wholesome goodness of the chinese herbs. However, in powder form you cannot apply too much or it will be too overpowering. Enough of talk, let get on with it.


You can use half a chicken, or 8 pieces of wings or 4 to 5 pieces of chicken for this. First rinse the chicken under the running water and drain and excess left over water. If you have Chinese Cooking Wine or Mirin(if you have any), use a teaspoon of it together with a pinch of salt and rub the chicken pieces to remove the raw smell.

Add a teaspoon of the Emperor Chicken Herb mix together with a teaspoon of Maggie Liquid Chicken Stock into the chicken pieces. Ensure every pieces are evenly coated then leave it to marinate for at least an hour or overnight for best result. 

Line the bowl (that is deep enough to hold the chicken pieces with some allowance) with baby carrot before you place the marinated chicken pieces on top. Seal the bowl with a microwave glade wrap and place it in a steamer and steam it for 2 hours. After 2 hours of steam, you will notice whole chicken bouillon is collected below the bowl. The bouillon will have a faint sweetness of baby carrot in it which is superior than those sold in soup stall.

   
Grill Emperor Chicken

• 8 pieces of mid wings
• Emperor Chicken Herb Mix
• Salt
• Maggie Non-MSG Liquid Chicken Stock
• Electric Grill or Grill Pan 
  

Recently, I purchase a Kenwood multi-purpose sandwich maker that come with interchangeable grill plate. This spark off my creative culinary brain juice, we can have grill version of the Emperor Chicken instead of the common soup version.

The preparation is similar to the soup version which I will not repeat the preparation and marinate procedure here and move on to the grilling portion. If you have a Kenwood electric grill like me u can heating up the grill until the green indicator light up to indicate you can grill food items on it. Make sure you have coat ample cooking oil on grill plate. Line the wings onto the grill and close the cover of the grill and let it grill for 5 minutes. Open the grill and check on the wings brush oil on the wings then close the grill cover grill for another 5 mintues. Then it is ready to serve.

Fried Emperor Chicken 

• 8 pieces of mid wings
• Emperor Chicken Herb Mix
• Salt
• Maggie Non-MSG Liquid Chicken Stock
• Rice Flour
• Cooking Oil

The fried version of Emperor Chicken was conceptualize from Colonel Sander's Kentucky Fried Chicken whereby 11 spices were used. If the western got KFC why not asian have their own version.


The preparation procedure is same as before with the exception you might need to add additional 1 or 2 teaspoon of the Emperor Chicken Herb mix to the chicken as when it coat with rice flour the herb flavour will diminish. Next evenly coat the marinated wing pieces with layer of rice flour and set it aside for 30 minutes. 

Heat up the fryer and fried the wings till golden brown as shown. There you have Asia own version of Colonel Sander's 11 Spice Fried Chicken. Enjoy.