Tag Archives: soy sauce

Dining, Recipes

Recipe: Taiwanese-style Three Cup Chicken or Pork

I’m a fan of cooking shows, especially the globe trotting kind. While he’s no Andrew Zimmern (whose Bizarre Food series I absolutely enjoy), I recently digested Ainsley Harriott’s street food series “Eat the Streets” on Netflix and was excited to try out some ideas I gleaned from the show.

One of them is a strangely familiar dish, bearing passing resemblance to Filipino adobo chicken…in which chicken parts are braised in a soy sauce base.

Three Cup Chicken/Pork is an easy poultry dish made herby with garlic, ginger and basil. As the meat braises in a spicy-salty-sweet sauce, the basil really gives this dish the perfect finish.

I found pre-cut drumsticks at my local 99 Ranch grocery, but you can chop your own or substitute chicken thighs. I’ve also cooked this with pork belly–which is especially divine.

Serious Eats’ article on San Bei Ji helped me refine some of the measurements and ingredients to suit my family’s tastes. As it stands this recipe contains a lot of heat, but feel free to adjust or omit the chili peppers.

  • 1-2lbs of chicken drumsticks, cut into 3rds (or pork belly)
  • 2oz black or toasted sesame oil
  • 2oz mirin or rice wine
  • 4oz kecap manis, sweet soy sauce
  • 1-2oz chopped garlic
  • 1-2oz ginger root, sliced into rounds
  • 5 pieces of thai bird chili peppers (less to moderate the heat)
  • .5-1oz thai basil

Over medium-high heat, saute garlic, chili peppers and ginger root in sesame oil until fragrant. Add protein, rice wine and sweet soy sauce and braise for 15-20 minutes. Add thai basil and toss until wilted.

Dining, Recipes

Recipe: Adobo Turkey Tails

Turkey tails! I spotted these in the frozen meat section of my local grocery store. Since I’m a big fan of tails, I thought I would do something with these tails. Originally I thought of smoking or frying them, but I stumbled on an idea on the internet that sounded really great. Adobo turkey tails!

1.5 cups apple cider vinegar
.5 cup medium sweet soy sauce (ABC Kecap Manis)
40 garlic cloves, crushed/chopped
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp coarse kosher salt
1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
2.5 lbs turkey tails (bone-in)

 Place the defrosted tails in a hot pan and cook until browned. No need to add oil to the pan, these tails ooze enough fat to brown themselves. Add peppercorns, garlic and cook until brown. Add 1 cup of vinegar and bring to a boil.  Bring heat down to medium heat and add the rest of the vinegar, sweet soy sauce, salt, and sugar. Mix thoroughly and continue to reduce sauce, taking care to coat each tail evenly.

1/8/2013 AdoboTurkeyTails 1

These were yummy. Regrettably, I had some gastrointestinal upset which I suspect came from the tails. My man also suffered some stomach pains after consuming the adobo. I discovered that the brand label Pride of the Farm and meat packer Cargill Turkey has a history of food recalls related to salmonella contamination. While I thought that the vinegar and high heat would have sufficiently killed off most of the microbes, it doesn’t any of the toxins produced by them. Of course, this also led me on a furious clean up with bleach of all the kitchen surfaces to ensure everything was sanitized.