Chicken Sheperd's Pie



Yummy homey comfort food!



Chicken Sheperd's Pie for dinner, anyone?  Most recipes I've seen call for tinned condensed soup for the sauce, leftover chicken for the filling and leftover mashed potatoes for the topping. This recipe here however is my very own self concocted version from scratch. It's easy to make and is very versatile, you can change the recipe around to suit  your family. Chuck in whatever and however much meat or vegetable or herb or spice or cheese you fancy. Play around with it, I'm sure the end result will still be yummy.  Do try and have fun making your very own pie. 

Chicken Sheperd's Pie

Ingredients:

3 to 4 large Potatoes
1  Tbs Butter
1 to 2 Tbs Milk or Cream
Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper, to taste

600 g Chicken Thighs, deboned, skin removed & cubed

1 Tbs Oyster Sauce

1 Tbs Soy Sauce

Ginger Juice

1 Tbs Garlic
1 Tbs cooking wine

pinch of Salt &  ground white pepper

1 tsp Dried Tarragon

2- 4 Leeks
1 Carrot (diced, steamed)
1 Cup Broccoli (steamed)
1 Tbs Garlic
1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs plain flour
1 1/2 - 2 cups Chicken Stock
2 Tbs to1/4 cup Whipping Cream (half & half or single cream)
Salt & Freshly ground Black Pepper, to taste


How to cook:

Mashed Potatoes: Peel skin off potatoes, wash then steam for 15 minutes or till cooked & soft. Transfer to a bowl, mash up adding butter (add more if u don't mind your waistline!) and milk or cream (add enough to your desired consistency). Season with salt & pepper.

Chicken: Marinade chicken thighs with oyster sauce, soy sauce, ginger juice, garlic, salt & pepper for at least 2 hours or overnight. Drizzle some olive oil in a pan, pan fry the chicken. When the chicken is half cooked, add the tarragon and continue cooking  till golden fully cooked. Set aside.

Filling & Sauce & Assembly: When the chicken has been removed from the pan, add a little more olive oil and saute the garlic and leeks. Push to one side of the pan, add butter. When the butter has melted, add the flour and cook a couple minutes, stirring. Add chicken stock (add more if you prefer more sauce) and stir until smooth. Stir in cream (add more if you prefer a creamier & richer sauce). Season with salt & pepper.  Tumble in the carrot and broccoli. Simmer until veggies are soft and sauce has thicken, add the cooked chicken thighs, mix well. Remove from stove and pour into baking dish. Top with mashed potatoes. Bake at 180 degrees Celcius for about 20 minutes or until mashed potatoes are golden. Done!





Dig in!



'3 Cups Chicken' Inspired Dish

3 cups WHAT?  '3 Cups Chicken' is a direct English translation of  'Sanbeiji', a Chinese dish that is so called because it requires 3 key sauce ingredients in equal proportions and they are soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil.

Read here in wikipaedia if u are interested to read more on the origin & background of  '3 Cups Chicken'.

This chicken  dish I made is an 'accidental' one. I had some ready marinaded chicken thigh pieces which had to be consumed soon, and just when I was contemplating on how to cook them for dinner, I saw a timely blog post on 3 Cups Chicken. So, 3 Cups it was! I don't know if this dish can be  considered or qualify as '3 Cups Chicken' but it's nevertheless an inspired one.  I've added some lovely yellow & red bell peppers and some leeks too. The outcome was rather good and received praises from my dear Hubby. He kept saying how fragrant this dish was and he loves the combination of the bell peppers and leeks.


3 Cups Inspired Chicken 

Ingredients:

about 600 g Chicken Thighs (cut to bite size pieces and marinate with 1 Tbs minced garlic, 1 Tbs ginger juice, 1 Tbs oyster sauce, 1 Tbs soy sauce, dash of salt & white pepper)
2 Leeks, chopped
2 Bell Peppers (1 red & 1 yellow, dice roughly)
1 Tbs Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Tshao Shing Cooking Wine
1/2 Tbs Sesame oil (Note: Ok I cheated a little. I was afraid the sesame oil might be too overpowering, so I didn't follow the 1:1:1 proportion)
Salt & Pepper to taste


Method:

1) In a pan or wok, stir fry chicken until golden. Set aside.
2) In the same pan, add the sesame oil, dump in the leeks and bell pepper. Stir fry until half cooked. Tumble in the chicken and drizzle in the soy sauce and cooking wine. Continue stir frying until fully cooked and sauce has reduced and slightly thickened. Season with salt & pepper. Done!

Steamed Chicken Wings with Cincaluk

I was looking for ways to finish off my bottle of left-over cincaluk and saw a recipe for Steamed Chicken with Salted Fish in a cookbook  and thought of substituting the salted fish with cincaluk. Turned out quite good.

Ingredients:

about 600g Chicken Wings

thumb size Ginger, slivered

1 Tbs Oyster Sauce

1Tbs Cincaluk

1 Tbs Soy Sauce

1 Tsp sugar

few drops sesame oil

1 Tsp cornflour

Method:
Mix all ingredients together and allow to marinate for 1/2 hour. Steam on high heat for 15 - 20 minutes till cook through. Done.

Steamed Chicken Wings with Coriander & Ginger

A new chicken dish I've tried recently. Very fragrant with the combination of coriander, chilli and ginger.


Ingredients
about 500g Chicken Wings
50g Ginger, minced finely
1 Chillies, diced finely, (more if u prefer more heat)
1 bunch coriander, chopped

Marinade:
1 Tbs Oyster Sauce
1Tbs Soy Sauce
few drops sesame oil
1 tsp cornflour

Method:
1) Mix chicken wings with marinade and set aside to marinate for 15 minutes.
2) Combine the marinaded chicken wings with minced ginger, diced chillies & chopped coriander. Place on heatproof plate and steam for 20-25 minutes over high heat until cooked. Season with salt to taste. Done.

Braised Herbal Chicken

This photo doesn't do this dish justice due to poor lighting. It's actually yummier than it looks.

This dish is inspired by my aunt, Aunty M, a bubbly & friendly person and who is a very good cook. Like most cookbooks  I've read, her way of cooking herbal chicken is by wrapping the chicken & herbs together with aluminium foil and then letting the parcel steam in the wok for about an hour. My way however is quite different. It is sorta like a stew, a lazy person's kinda cooking. But I must say, my family literally licked the bowl clean everytime I made this flavorsome dish. :)

Ingredients:

Chicken Thighs about 1kg (chopped to bite size pieces)

1 Bulb Garlic (smashed)

Marinade:

2 Tbs Oyster Sauce

2 Tbs Light Soy Sauce

1 tsp Sugar

a few drops Sesame Oil

a couple shakes of White Pepper

a dash of Tsao Tsing Cooking Wine (optional)

Herbs:

(quantity is approximate, about as much as shown in the pic on the right)

Dang Gui

Dang Shen

Bei Qi

Qi Zi (Wolfberries)

Yu Zhu

Chuan Xiong

Method:

Some pre-cooking is needed for this dish as follows:

1) Pre-boil herbs with 2 cups of water in low heat for about 1 hour to soften and extract their flavor. Set aside.
2) Marinade chopped chicken thighs with marinade for at least an hour.
To cook, brown chicken in a wok/deep pan heated with a little cooking oil (I usually cook my chicken without adding any oil as the chicken is fatty enough and I use a non-stick pan). Add the garlic and stir fry till fragrant. Pour in the left over marinade from the chicken and the boiled herbs mixture. Braise for about 15 to 20 minutes until sauce is a little thicken. Season with salt to taste. Done.

Quick Chicken Stew

This is my versatile go-to chicken dish for days when I'm out of ideas of what to cook or when I'm just plain lazy and in short of time.    

                                                          

Ingredients: 

Chicken pieces - about 1 kg,

Garlic 1Tbs,

Ginger 1cm,

Dried Chillies 5pieces (more if you prefer more spicy heat),

Leeks,

Sweet Taucheong 1Tbs,

Oyster Sauce 1Tbs,

Light Soya Sauce 1Tbs,  

a dash of Tsao Tsing Wine (if prefered),

Salt & Pepper - Season to your taste.       

How to Cook:

Heat 1 Tbs of cooking oil in a wok or deep wide pan and saute garlic, ginger & chillies till fragrant but not burnt. Add chicken pieces and fry till nice & golden. Add the oyster sauce, light soya sauce & Tsao Tsing wine. Pour in  about half a cup of water and let it simmer  for 15 mins or till sauce is a little thicker. Throw in the leeks half-way thru simmering and you may also add whatever veg you fancy ie. broccoli, carrots etc. Season with salt & pepper. Done! Easy peasy.

  

Soya Sauce Chicken

Soya Sauce Chicken is a popular dish in many Malaysian households and most have their own versions of the recipe. Simple and easy to prepare, this dish is best eaten with plain white rice.  

Here's my very own recipe.

Ingredients:
Chicken Thighs about 1kg (Chopped into bite size pieces)
Soya Sauce 1Tbs
Kicap Manis 1Tbs (dark sweet Soy sauce)
Sugar 1Tbs
a few drops Sesame Oil
a splash of Tsao Tshing Cooking Wine
few cloves Garlic (smashed)
a couple slices Ginger

How to cook:
Marinate chicken with all the above ingredients except garlic & ginger for at least an hour. Heat up a deep fry pan or wok with a tablespoon of cooking oil and saute garlic & ginger till fragrant. Reserve the marinade and dump in the chicken and fry till golden brown. Pour in the reserved marinade and half a cup of water onto the chicken and let simmer for a while till chicken is fully cooked thru.  Add salt or more light soy sauce to taste. Done.