Shanghai Chicken

This recipe for Shanghai Chicken is simple and delicious. Serve with sweet chili sauce for extra flavor. 

Today I learned a new term used in the cooking world. As you guys may know, if you’ve read my profile page, I’m not a chef or I have not been trained as one. Everything I do, I learned on my own, or any of my traditional Romanian recipes, I’ve learned from my mother. However, I love the food network channel, and that is pretty much all I ever watch on TV. So last night I was watching a show which I think it’s called America’s worst cook, and one of the chefs on there was teaching the competitors about mise on place. Now, not having any professional culinary training I did not know about this. So having learned about it, I was so proud so I run to my husband to tell him all about it but first I wanted to see if he knew what it was. Well, to my surprise he did. I think it’s just because he knows a little french so he beat me to it. Oh well, for the rest of you who do not know what mise on place is, here is the Wikipedia explanation of it:

Mise en place (pronounced [miz en plas], literally “putting in place”) is a French phrase defined by the Culinary Institute of America as “everything in place”, as in set up. It is used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (e.g., cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that he or she expects to prepare during his/her shift.

Normally when I cook, I always like to get all my ingredients organized anyway, so apparently I have been practicing mise en place all along just didn’t know about it.

Now this chicken recipe was my husband’s idea, so I give him all the credit for it. Sometimes he has great ideas, so I have to give him credit for them, and I have to admit, this chicken was very good. Apparently this is something he ate a lot of back home in Romania and wanted to duplicate the recipe, because it was one of his favorite. To make this fried chicken taste even better, serve it with some sweet chili sauce and you’ve got yourself an awesome meal.

I know it’s fried chicken, but I did calculate the weight watchers points for it and it worked out to 11 points per serving not including the sweet chili sauce, so all in all not too bad. It really is worth it. It was also pretty quick to make, really the hardest thing is to fry the chicken.

First of all, I used 6 boneless and skinless chicken breasts, which I cut into longer strips.

 Now as I’m cooking and slaving away in the kitchen, my dear dog is in the family room, snoring up a storm on the sofa, exposing all of herself for everyone to see.

To be a beagle, what I wouldn’t give to have that life. 🙂 She is the cutest though.

Back to cooking here, this is a recipe blog after all. 🙂 In a medium size bowl, add all the ingredients together for the batter, the eggs, the soy sauce, cornstarch, flour, dill, mustard, and salt and pepper.

Whisk everything together to make a nice batter.

In another bowl, dump about a cup of sesame seeds. In a nonstick pan add a little bit of oil. I know we’re frying these, but we don’t have to use lots of oil, so I added about 1/4 cup of vegetable oil to the pan, which I probably ended up using half of it by the time all the chicken was done. Heat up the oil. Take the chicken strips and dip them in the batter, making sure they are fully coated, then sprinkle some sesame seeds over each piece, you could dip the chicken in the sesame seeds, but you might run out of sesame seeds soon. Fry each piece until it’s done and fully cooked, turning it over on the other side, making sure it’s nice and golden all around. Place them over a plate with paper towels, to soak up some of the oil. Repeat until all the chicken is fried.

As I’ve said, serve this chicken with some sweet chili sauce and enjoy. Now if you ask me where did the name Shanghai chicken come from, well that’s what my husband said this chicken is called, so that’s what I’m naming it. I hope you try it and like it. 🙂

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Shanghai Chicken

5 from 1 vote

Prep: 10 mins

Cook: 30 mins

Total: 40 mins

Author: Joanna Cismaru

Serves: 6

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Ingredients

• 6 chicken breasts boneless and skinless
• 3 eggs
• 6 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp yellow mustard
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 4 tbsp all purpose flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped dill
• 1/2 to 1 cup of sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil for frying
• sweet chili sauce optional

Instructions

• Wash the chicken and cut the breasts into long strips.
• In a medium bowl add the soy sauce, eggs, mustard, flour, cornstarch, dill, salt and pepper and whisk everything well.
• In another bowl add the sesame seeds.
• In a nonstick pan heat up the vegetable oil over medium heat.
• Dip the chicken strips into the batter and then sprinkle or dip the chicken in the sesame seeds. Fry on both sides until the chicken is golden brown. Make sure the heat is on medium, so that you don’t burn the chicken and to make sure you cook the chicken well.
• Repeat with all the chicken.
• Serve with sweet chili sauce.

Recipe Notes

11 weight watchers points per serving

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