Chicken with sesame oil and honey

1 chicken (about 1.4kg)
2tbsp veg oil
125ml water
2 tbsp sesame oil
Seasoning:
4tbsp light soy sauce
3tbsp clear honey
1tbsp rice wine or dry sherry
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt

Using a cleaver or meat axe, cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.
Mix the seasoning ingredients and add the chicken, marinate for 1 hour.
Drain the chicken reserving the marinade. Heat the oil in a wok and add the chicken pieces. Stir fry over a medium heat till the chicken begins to brown. Add the water and bring to a boil. Stir in the reserved marinade and the sesame oil and simmer gently for 40 minutes.


I marinated it for 2 hours, because my timing worked out that way, and that was fine. Also, I don’t have a meat cleaver, so what I did was use a decent knife to cut part way through the chicken pieces, down to the bone, then I held the knife still and whacked the back of it with a rolling pin to cut through the bones. This worked, though not as well as a meat cleaver would have, and it did do some damage to my rolling pin (but didn’t render it useless, so I kept on with it anyway). If you have fabulous knives that you love, I wouldn’t try this trick, as I imaging it’s pretty tough on the knife. Still, it did what I needed it too.

This recipe was dead easy to make, and really tasty. It’s not overwhelmingly flavored like what you get at a Chinese take away place, it’s much more subtle. I plan to make a noodle stir fry with the left over chicken and sauce.

Good stuff.