Classic Chinese braised chicken with chestnut
Chestnut is a popular snack on Chinese street especially fried or roasted ones. We can always find one store selling freshly fried chestnut on the street corner. Chinese chestnut is named as “板栗” in mainland China.
My grandmother lives in a large mountain where there are lots of wild Chinese chestnuts trees. However, we had no idea about what it is and whether it is edible until one day a guest pointed out that those were Chinese chestnut tree. From that time on, we ate lots of chestnut for free.I still remember one afternoon, my grandmother ask my grandfather to get some chestnut for the braising chicken recipe. Just around 20 minutes, my grandfather get a large brunch of chestnut tree, thinking that he had finished the job. So we spend lots of time breaking the first shell, the second shell and peeling the skin off.
Then we tested lots of methods to make this process easier. There are many ways to peel off the chestnut including boiling, roasting in micro-wave oven or exposure under sunshine or rub shelled with rubber glove or towel. Her are some tips about how to skin off chestnut easily.
- If you do not want to shell the chestnut firstly, then boil them in salted water for around 5 minutes. And then cut the chestnut into halves and peel the shell and skin off when they are still hot. Leave the left soaked with the hot water.
- If you are skilled at removing the shell the chestnut, shell them firstly and then soak in boiling water for around 1 minutes and then rub with towel by small batches (around 5 to 6) to remove the skin quickly.
Fresh chestnuts are almost everywhere in China, so I am using fresh ones for today's recipe. Compared with frozen ones, fresh ones offer a stronger taste. You can use frozen ones of course.
Braised Chicken with Chestnut
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chicken , I use whole chicken, you can use chicken thigh
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon cooking wine
- 1 cup fresh chestnut after shell
- 2 green onions , finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves , sliced
- 1 sections of scallion around 10cm long
- 4 slices ginger
- ¼ middle size red onion
- 2 star anises
- 2 cups hot water
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt , taste to adjust the amount accordingly
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into small chunks and then cook in boiling water for around 30 seconds to remove the impurities. And then transfer out and drain.
- Marinate the chicken with around 2 tablespoons soy sauce for around 15 minutes. Drain before frying.
- Heat 2 tablespoons cooking oil in a pan or wok until really hot. Add chicken chunks in. Stay for around 1 minute until brown on one side and fragrant. And then turn them over to fry the other side.
- Move them to one side of the wok; add garlic, ginger, scallion and red onion until aroma. Mix well. Pour around 2 cups of hot water to soak the chicken chunks completely. Slow the fire to simmer for around 10 minutes. Add all the other sauce ingredients except sesame oil
- Add chestnuts in and continue simmer until the chestnuts are well cooked (soft to your own preference). Turn up the fire to thicken the sauce. When the sauce is well thickened, add sesame oil. Transfer to serving plate and garnish with chopped green onion before serving.
Nutrition
Holly | Beyond Kimchee
I love chestnuts. Love the idea of cooking chicken with chestnuts. All you need is a bowl of rice with this.
Elaine Luo
Chestnuts are really great with chicken. Go ahead and have a try.
chris
great recipe you need someone to read your posts though as the english isnt quite right, keep it up
Elaine Luo
Thanks Chris for your encouragement and suggestions. I will try to improve my English in later recipes.
Tyler
Thanks for the recipe! Your English is great for a second language
Elaine Luo
Thanks Tyler for your kindness! Honestly, I hope to write the recipe much clearer so that you guys can succeed with my recipes too. Happy cooking ahead.
Andreas
Hi Elaine,
I made this yesterday as fresh chestnuts are traditional "Winter Food" around here and it's really wet, windy and cold outside at the moment. After eating this delicious dish I didn't feel cold anymore 🙂
Now the fresh chestnuts I can buy in the store are of the Castanea sativa variety which look a little bit different from the ones on your photo which I suspect are of the Castanea mollissima family. I hope to find some of those too some day to see if there is any significant difference in taste.
Thank you again for another great (and simple) recipe.
andreas
It's probably not good style to reply to your own post. But anyhow, in case someone is interested. I got hold of some Chinese chestnuts. They are a little bit smaller and a little bit sweeter than the European variant. So if you cut the big ones in halves and maybe add a tiny bit of sugar you'll get the same result.
Glynis
Thank you Thank you. As children we used to peel chestnuts after boiling them. It was such a long laborious exercise! Your tip on how to peel them is the best one yet.
Melissa
This a fabulous recipe and a great way to cook chestnuts. It became an instant favourite for our family
Elaine
Thanks and happy cooking, Melissa.
Chris
This is a great and totally delicious recipe. The best use of chestnuts for me - we had it for Xmas dinner!!
Many thanks - and your English is fine by the way!
Elaine
Thanks Chris for your kindness.
Andreas
Hi Elaine,
I'm just now making this once again, and while looking up the recipe I noticed, that you don't mention when to put in the star anise. I presume it's with the garlic and ginger...
By the way I'd love to make this more often, but I guess when it comes to peeling chestnuts I'm one of the less skilled people 🙁 Could you maybe do a video on how you do that? Maybe I can learn a trick or two from watching you.
Tracey Culver
Hello! I’ve been cooking with chestnuts for 40 years, and currently freeze five pounds of cooked and peeled chestnuts every fall. This is the easiest way to peel them:
Cut in half either way. Put cut side down in steamer basket and steam 15 minutes. Wrap hot chestnuts in a bath towel. Take out one at a time to peel.
Often the exposed side will stick to the towel and so it will peel itself!
Smooshygremlin
So delicious. Thank you for the recipe. I made it as is except added a cinnamon stick and a few whole cloves to the sauce.
Thank you again 🙂
Elaine
My pleasure!