Linguine with Pan-Fried Chicken Breast and Siew Pak Choy

What do you do if you have linguine (a type of pasta), chicken and siew pak choy? Cook them into a dish, of course! It will be handy if you have a can of pasta sauce in your kitchen cabinet.

This dish takes me 1 hour to prepare and cook. I am still an amateur and take a longer time to prepare the ingredients and cook them. Briefly, what I have prepared is pan-fried chicken breast, blanched siew pak choy and pasta sauce. Each can be a dish by itself but this is sort of a fusion dish using western and eastern ingredients. In fact, this is the first time I cooked this dish and I was quite pleased! (I am usually quite fussy over the quality of food I cook. My wife will attest to that!)

Glorious Siew Pak Choy

I hope you will give this dish a try and having learnt it, experiment on your own with the ingredients.

This is my recipe for Linguine with Pan-Fried Chicken Breast and Siew Pak Choy.

Ingredients

• 250 grammes of linguine (you can use any type of pasta)
• 1 large chicken breast
• 200 grammes of siew pak choy (wash and clean)
• 1 can of button mushrooms (halved)
• 1 can of Campbells Pasta Sauce (tomato, garlic and basil sauce)
• 2 large onions (chopped)
• 5 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of palm oil
• 1 pot of water

Marinade for chicken

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper powder
• A dash of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 tablespoon of HP BBQ Sauce
• A dash of black pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour

Seasoning for tomato-based sauce

• Salt to taste
• Black pepper powder to taste

Method

Marinade chicken breast for at least 1 hour or more.

Bring water to boil in a large pot. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of palm oil. Add in the siew pak choy and blanch till the leaves turn dark green / cooked. Remove the leaves and set aside.

Cook the linguine in the pot of water according to directions on packaging. Remove and drain. Set aside and drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil over it.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in frying pan and fry the chicken breast for at least 2 minutes on each side. Ensure chicken breast is thoroughly cooked by piercing the meat with a fork. Clear juice should flow when pierced. Remove from pan to cool. Slice the pan-fried chicken breast.

Heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil on a sauce pan and saute the onions till translucent. Add button mushrooms and stir well for 2 minutes. Add the pasta sauce and seasoning and bring to boil. Add half-can of water. Cover with lid, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Arrange cooked linguine on plate. Place sliced pan-fried chicken breast and siew pak choy to your liking. Pour an appropriate amount of the mushroom tomato pasta sauce over them and serve hot.

This is another simple dish to cook but great tasting. French beans can be cooked in many different ways including blanching and steaming but I find it most delicious when it is stir-fried with garlic and egg.

The crunchiness and sweetness of the french beans mixed with the fluffy-fried eggs gives this dish a good balance in taste and texture, not to mention the healthiness. Try choosing the younger and lighter green french beans which are younger, tender and less fibrous compared to the older and darker coloured variety.

Thinly sliced french beans

Cooking time varies depending on how thinly you slice the french beans diagonally. Obviously, cooking time is lesser if you slice it thinly. You will also have to manage the heat from the cooker as you do not want to burn the garlic.

This is my wife’s recipe for Stir-Fried French Beans with Egg.

Ingredients

• 150 - 200 grammes french beans (sliced diagonally thinly)
• 1 large egg
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Seasoning

• Salt to taste
• White pepper powder to taste

Method

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in wok on medium heat. Lightly stir fry the garlic till it begins to brown. Add french beans and stir fry at medium high heat for 1 - 2 minutes. If garlic is browning fast, reduce heat. Sprinkle seasoning to taste.

Make a well in the wok (i.e. move the french beans from the center of the wok), increase to high heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Break egg into the oil and let it fry till semi-solid. Mix and stir french beans into the semi-solid egg and fry for 30 seconds or so.

Remove from wok and serve hot with rice or plain porridge.

Chicken with Potatoes, Carrots and Mushrooms

I am back after the long festive holidays. I had the chance of cooking a couple of dishes and this is one of them. My mum cooks this dish quite often too. I guess it’s because it is quite easy and simple to cook. I usually remove the skin of the chicken prior to cooking this dish for health reasons. Furthermore, I don’t like the dish to turn out with a layer of oil. In the picture below, I have yet to remove the skin.

Once you have mastered this dish, you can experiment with the ingredients - eg. adding baby corn, different types of mushrooms, celery etc.

This is my recipe for Chicken with Potatoes, Carrots and Mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken drumsticks & thigh (chop to desired size)
• 1 medium sized carrot (cut to wedges)
• 2 small sized potatoes (cut to wedges)
• 4 pieces dried chinese mushrooms (pre-soaked)
• 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 1 cup warm water

Marinade

• 3 teaspoons light soya sauce
• a couple of dashes of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour

Seasoning

• 1 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon dark soya sauce
• Salt to taste

Method

Marinade chicken for 30 - 60 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oil in wok and fry potatoes till golden brown. Remove fried potatoes from oil.

With remaining oil in wok and at medium heat, saute the chinese mushrooms for 1 minute. Increase to high heat and add chicken and garlic and stir fry for another minute till outer layer of chicken is cooked. Add fried potatoes and carrots and continue stir frying for another minute.

Add seasoning and water and close lid. Cook for another 3 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

This is a very easy recipe to cook and uses only a handful of ingredients. You only need pork or beef, preserved szechuan vegetables, garlic, cooking oil and dark soya sauce. The preserved szechuan vegetable, which is spicy hot and salty, gives a natural flavouring to the dish and you don’t really need to put any others seasoning apart from the dark soya sauce to give the dish some “colour”.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Pork with Preserved Szechuan Vegetable.

Ingredients

• 200 grammes of tenderloin pork (sliced thinly)
• 1/2 piece of szechuan vegetable (julienned and washed thoroughly)
• 4 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 50 ml of warm water

Seasoning

• 2 teaspoons dark soya sauce
• Sprinkle of sugar (optional)

Method

Heat oil in wok and add chopped garlic. Stir for 5 to 10 seconds. Add pork and preserved szechuan vegetables and stir-fry for 1 minute.

Add dark soya sauce and water and cook until pork is thorougly cooked and sauce has reduced. Sprinkle some sugar if you find it too salty.