Ginger Purim Chicken
For over 10 years, I lived in Bat Ayin, a yeshuve in Gush Etzion. I first moved there in 2007, to become the Em Bayit, or dorm mother, at Midreshet B’erot bat Ayin, I lived alone apart from a small ginger cat, who turned up on my door step when as a kitten one Purim morning & was duly named chutzpah, I was never lonely, as I made amazing friends in the yeshuve, the type that became family. Every Shabbat and Chag was special, but Purim was magical.
It became even more magical for me, early Purim morning 2010, when I became a grandmother, making Purim very special in our family. Purim morning in Bat Ayin, nearly everyone would dress up, my close friends and I would eat together, a meal where each of us would prepare something contributing to the Suda, The day was high energy, fun packed and busy, the meal which was always after the megillah reading, and distribution of mishloach manos was normally midafternoon,the dishes either had slow cooked food or food that could be prepared the day before and reheated .
One dish that I was always asked to make was Ginger Chicken which was a hit with both the adults and children. The main work is in the preparation
Method
¼ cup Chinese rice wine (this was easy to get kosher in Israel), if not available very dry white can be used
½ tea spoon chili flakes
½ tea spoon pepper
1 table spoon vegetable oil
1 kilo of chicken off the bone preferably a mixture of breast and thigh, cut into chunks.
2 small carrots cut into small slithers
2 teaspoons runny honey
3 shallots, peeled and sliced thin
3 table spoon soy sauce
5 large cloves of garlic peeled and cut into 3 and slightly smashed
6 spring onions, washed and sliced separate the white and green part of the spring onion,
6-8 slices of fresh ginger peeled and cut into strips it should be around ½ a cm thick.
Half a liter chicken stock
I tablespoon corn starch, mixed together well with 1 table spoon cold water to make a slurry.
Method
1 Put the oil in a wok and heat it until it just starts smoking, then add the ginger, shallots, smashed garlic and the white part of the spring onion and carrot strips, cook over a high heat while moving mixture around for 30 seconds , then add the chicken , cook it lightly for less than a minute on each side to sear it, mixing everything together.
2 Add the wine, chicken stock, pepper, chili, soy sauce and honey cover the wok, stir and cook for 5 minutes still on a high heat,
3 Remove the lid, cook for 7-10 minutes to let the stock reduce down, half way though add the green part of the spring onions, and the corn starch and water mix. Mix it well, reduce the heat and stir so it doesn’t catch, cook for 2-3 minutes, to ensure the corn starch isn’t gloopy.
4 At this `stage you can either serve with white rice or rice noodles, or cool it down refrigerate and heat up to serve at your meal.