cozy cooking: sesame oil chicken
winter fixation flavors
In the dead of winter, all I want is ginger-y soup. And nothing feels more like a warm hug than the simple yet hearty flavors in Taiwanese sesame oil chicken (ma you ji 麻油雞). Dark sesame oil and ginger go so well together, healing flavors that warm from within. In Taiwan, there are places that specialize in sesame oil based dishes. The main star is the chicken soup. But I live for the sides. The cabbage, the thin vermicelli, the mi xue (pork blood rice cakes).
I keep a jar of frizzled ginger in sesame oil from Yun Hai for a quick fix – a few minutes to boil water and cook some noodles and whatever leafy vegetable I have, drain and topped with frizzled ginger to mix in for a 10 minute meal. Sometimes if I’m feeling particularly decadent, I’ll fry an egg to top it off.
But on a winter night, when it gets dark by 4pm and there’s nothing better to do than cozy up by the stove, I opt for the longer version. Which honestly isn’t too much work either. Very few ingredients, very high reward. Traditionally, you don’t even need water (it’s pure rice wine) or salt.
Not really a recipe
Ingredients
- Black Sesame Oil
- Rice Wine
- Ginger, sliced
- Goji
- Chicken (ideally bone in, dark meat)
Steps
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Soak goji in rice wine
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Heat up some sesame oil and stir fry the chicken and ginger
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Add rice wine and simmer until the chicken is fully cooked broth turns opaque
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Top with a drizzle of sesame oil and goji
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For cabbage and vermicelli, boil til cooked and then mix with some broth, top with sesame oil and frizzled ginger.