Today, we wanted to show you how to make a dish that's become increasingly popular here in China, Huangmenjimifan – braised chicken rice.
Now this is a dish that's originally from the Shandong province, and is at its base is basically some chicken braised with sweet bean paste and soy sauce.
Recently though, there's been a huge swath of Huangmenji joints opening up around the country, led by one chain in particular called "Yangmingyu".
Their version's a bit different than the very most traditional Shandong Huangmenji… but it tastes great and might as well go along with the culinary zeitgeist… so today we'll be making this fast food version.
So right, to get started with braised chicken rice, you'll need… chicken.
Here we had 500 grams of chicken thigh – the traditional Shandong type would use a whole chicken, so you could just also do that if you want.
Now, this is one of those Chinese poultry on the bone dishes – I'd heavily recommend just sucking it up and learning how to eat around bones, but if that prospect does scare you feel free to whole use chicken wings?
They're a little harder to eat in the end but still work ok.
But assuming you're ok with some cleaving, grab a thigh, cut off a couple chunks extra meat to make it more even, and with force chop it up.
If your cleaver ever sticks into the bone, just keep it in and smack the rest of the thigh down against your board to cut it.
