Steamed chicken with ginger, garlic and chilli

This tasty steamed chicken was a part of our Asian banquet. 

I like steamed chicken; it has a different texture to baked or pan-fried chicken. It stays so moist and tender. Steaming is a healthy way to cook, no oil and grease involved. And I also love my little steamer basket. You can cook all kinds of things in it. My special favourite is steamed Japanese dumplings - gyoza - which reminds me I haven't cooked these in ages. Keep an eye out for them on the blog soon.

Back to the chicken. I served this with some hokkien noodles, which I have rediscovered recently and some steamed snow peas. 

The ingredients were simple, just chicken breast, noodles and snow peas and some amazing flavourings. 

What could be more simple, healthy and tasty? Not too much in my opinion.

We had the chicken and noodles with marinated tofu as a part of an Asian banquet.

What you'll need

* Serves two as a part of an Asian banquet

For the chicken

2 medium boneless chicken breasts, skin removed

1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and very finely sliced 

2 medium garlic cloves, finely sliced

2 small red chillis, finely sliced

1 tbl soy sauce

*You will see from the pictures that I did not slice my ginger and garlic very finely, but I like it that way.

For the noodles

300 - 400g hokkien noodles

100g button mushrooms, sliced

1 tbs soy sauce

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp vegetable oil.

Serve with steamed snow peas, broccolini or beans.

What to do

Bring 2 cups of water to boil in a small saucepan. 

Prepare the steamer. I place a small amount of vegetable oil onto the bottom of the steamer where the meat will sit to stop it from sticking during cooking.

Rub half the soy sauce over the chicken, reserving the rest for later. 

Place the chicken breasts into the steamer basket, one in each basket. (I use a small double-level bamboo steamer). Sprinkle the ginger and garlic over each chicken breast. 

Put the lid on the steamer, then place over the boiling water in the saucepan. Steam for approximately 10 minutes until cooked through.

*Keep an eye on the water level in the saucepan, as you may need to top it up during the cooking process. Don't let it run dry, otherwise you chicken will have a slightly burnt flavour.

While the chicken is steaming, prepare the noodles.

Heat a pan over medium heat. Add the oil, then the mushrooms and garlic and panfry until tender. Add the noodles, using a spoon to separate them. Once they are separated, and heated through, remove from the heat, and add the soy sauce. 

Once chicken is cooked, remove from the steamer. Place on a plate and dribble over the remaining soy sauce and sprinkle with the fresh chilli. You could slice the chicken into pieces to serve it, or leave it whole as I did. Serve with the noodles and vegetables.

I enjoy the firm and moist texture of the chicken with the bite of peppery ginger and garlic and the heat of the chilli. Yummy.......