Autumn and winter are the perfect season for chestnuts 🌰! Soft, sweet chestnuts paired with tender chicken make for a wonderfully delicious, hot pot of this! My husband and kids absolutely adore it. My husband even said, "I could eat this for a week straight and not get tired of it!" Haha!! (But now chestnuts are available year-round, so you can make it whenever you want.) The key to this delicious dish is adding June Fragrance Doubanjiang (a type of fermented broad bean paste), a very versatile sauce. Using it not only gives the chicken a vibrant red color and a richer, more savory flavor, but also perfectly balances the sweetness of the chestnuts. Chestnuts are rich in dietary fiber and vitamins, good for the spleen and stomach, and beneficial for kidney health; chicken is warming and invigorating, and is also a great high-protein, low-fat option 💪. The two complement each other perfectly. Give it a try!
Materials
A divine recipe for braised chicken with chestnuts! An incredibly delicious and easy-to-make home-style dish that will make your whole family swoon!
Prepare all ingredients: Chop half a chicken into pieces, wash it several times under running water to remove blood and set aside; buy pre-peeled chestnuts, wash them and dry them (if you're feeling diligent, you can buy fresh chestnuts and peel and remove the membrane, but that's a lot of work haha).
My family has always used Congbanlu (葱伴伴) brand of fermented soybean paste, a well-established Shandong brand that I've been eating since I was a child.
Place the chicken in a pot of cold water, add 2 tablespoons of cooking wine and 6 slices of ginger to remove the fishy smell. After boiling and scumming, remove the chicken, rinse it with warm water to remove the scum, and drain it for later use.
Beep beep~ Here's the secret~ Put a little cooking oil in a wok, pour in the raw chestnuts, shake the wok, and fry for about a minute. Remove and set aside. ~ Doing this will prevent your pot from ending up with a mess of broken chestnuts!
Heat 1 white enamel spoonful of oil in a wok, then add ginger slices, garlic cloves, and scallion segments and sauté until fragrant. ~If using chicken with a high fat content, please reduce the amount of oil accordingly.
Put the chicken into the pan and stir-fry over high heat for about 3 to 5 minutes, until the surface of the chicken turns slightly yellow and you can see clear chicken oil at the bottom of the pan. This will fully release the aroma of the chicken.
Pour in 2 tablespoons of cooking wine, then add 2 tablespoons of Congbanlv June Fragrance Doubanjiang (a type of fermented broad bean paste) to enhance the color and flavor. Look how bright and red this sauce is!
Stir-fry patiently over medium-low heat for 1 minute until the sauce and oil are fully combined. At this point, you will smell a very rich aroma of sauce. This is truly authentic sauce, fermented for over 90 days, with a genuine original brewed flavor.
Pour in boiling water that just covers the chicken, and cook for 5 minutes after the water boils again before adding the chestnuts.
Simmer over medium-low heat for another 15-20 minutes. The exact time depends on the size and variety of the chestnuts; they are done when cooked. Test a chestnut with chopsticks; if they easily separate, they are done.
Reduce the sauce over high heat until thickened, then turn off the heat, transfer to a plate, and garnish with a little chopped green onion. The rich aroma of the sauce will fill the whole house!
Even beginners can easily make this; it's simple and delicious, so everyone should try it!
A divine way to make braised chicken with chestnuts! A super delicious and easy-to-make home-style dish that will make your whole family swoon!
1. After wiping the chestnuts dry, lightly fry them in a little oil to prevent them from falling apart. 2. To prevent the chestnuts from being undercooked or mushy, poke them with a chopstick in the last five minutes of simmering. If the chopstick easily pierces through, they're done. If the outside is soft but the inside is still hard, turn off the heat and let them sit for another five minutes to cook through with the residual heat. 3. When reducing the sauce over high heat, keep shaking the wok and use a spoon to baste the chicken and chestnuts with the sauce to ensure even coating. The sauce is perfect when it clings to the back of the spoon and has a glossy sheen. 4. After adding the fermented bean paste, don't stir-fry it over high heat, as it can easily burn and become bitter. It's recommended to reduce the heat to medium-low. 5. This dish uses this sauce, so there's no need to add salt or MSG. Those who prefer a stronger flavor can add salt or MSG to taste (but I think it tastes better without them!). 6. The spoon used is a standard white enamel spoon.
