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The Chinese Chicken Cookbook
In China the chicken represents the phoenix, the mythological bird that rose from its ashes and that symbolizes rebirth and reaffirmation. Because of this deeply held belief, chicken is served at every New Year celebration, every wedding feast, and every birthday dinner. The chicken is honored for its eggs, its meat, and the flavor it provides for stocks and broths. Because of the reverence for this bird, the Chinese prepare chicken in myriad ways. Chicken is steamed, baked, boiled, stir-fried, deep-fried, pan-fried, and roasted. It is served hot, cold, or at room temperature. No part of the chicken is wasted from its bones to its skin to its feet, a Chinese delicacy.
Now, renowned Chinese cooking expert Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, who has been called "the Marcella Hazan of Chinese cooking" by The New York Times, brings her love of Chinese cooking and traditional Chinese chicken recipes to American home cooks in The Chinese Chicken Cookbook.
The Chinese Chicken Cookbook brings together more than one hundred of the best traditional and modern chicken recipes of China from simple stir-fries to more elaborate celebration dishes. In chapters that pair chicken with noodles and rice and in chapters on soup, preparing chicken in the wok, and cooking it whole, readers will find dozens of delicious, easy-to-prepare delicacies. Recipes such as Two-Sesame Chicken, Hot and Sour Soup, Ginger Noodles with Chicken, Chicken Water Dumplings, Chicken Stir-Fried with Broccoli, Mu Shu Chicken with Bok Bang, Mah-Jongg Chicken, and Asparagus Wrapped in Minced Chicken offer new and flavorful ways to prepare chicken whether you're making a quick weeknight meal or having dinner guests on a Saturday night.
Although these recipes use ingredients that home chefs can find in the international section of a well-stocked supermarket or on the Internet, Lo includes the Chinese names for ingredients and recipes, rendered in beautiful Chinese calligraphic characters. Not only decorative, these characters can help you locate unfamiliar ingredients in a Chinese market. The Chinese Chicken Cookbook also has sections on how to select and clean a chicken, a detailed explanation of Chinese ingredients, suggested equipment (including how to properly season a wok), and how to cook a perfect pot of rice.
With wonderful family stories from the author's childhood in China, The Chinese Chicken Cookbook is not just a cookbook for your cookbook library, it is a source of culinary inspiration.
- GenresCookbooks
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 30, 2003
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30 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 27, 2012
On many occasions you can find recipes that appear to be authentic representations of that served in their original country, yet upon closer inspection they are either a shadow of their real-life versions or they would be totally unknown of back home. A manufactured, artificial foreign dish if you will.
So authentic, where possible, not "adjusted" for the local taste is best if you can get it. Here, in what may appear to be a mixed message, the author presents many Chinese chicken recipes that assert their authentic roots whilst being presented for the American table. The title's specific reference to the American table was a little confusing, as unless the publisher was pandering to a perceived national insecurity there does not seem to be a special, overt 'American only' feel to the book.
To some the idea of an entire book dedicated to the chicken, chicken used within Chinese cookery, might seem a bit excessive, yet the lengthy introduction and veneration to the noble bird might help underline and reinforce why chicken plays an important part within Chinese cuisine. In keeping with similar books by the author, no prior knowledge or expertise of Chinese cuisine is assumed so there are many good primers about kitchen tools, the art of cooking Chinese cuisine, a look at "special" ingredients and so forth.
The recipes are split into chapters with, err, chicken... firstly as a small dish and appetiser; then soups; with rice, noodles, dumplings and bun and much more besides. From snack to feast and back again. Each recipe is accompanied by a brief introduction or scene-setter and here many useful tips and little bits of knowledge can be dispensed. In case you feel ambitious at your local Chinese restaurant a phonetic version of the dish's name is also given.
The recipes themselves are relatively easy to follow, or at least easy to understand, so as long as you follow them methodically and take advantage of the various primers and advice given, if required, you should not have a problem. In fact, compared to some similar books, the recipes are reassuringly more verbose!
There is just a little something about this book that this reviewer cannot put their finger on. Compared to other books by the same author there is just something missing. Like Chinese cookery, it can be just a very small thing that makes the difference. And no, it is not an overload of chicken! If the reviewer had not seen the other books it wouldn't have been worthy of a mention. This book in its own right is good, yet others by the author just feel, well, better, yet they serve different needs so it is not just a case of replacing one book with another. Still, if you like chicken and Chinese cuisine, this book would be a good fit. A vegetarian might feel somewhat disappointed though.
The Chinese Chicken Cookbook: 100 Easy-to-Prepare, Authentic Recipes for the American Table, written by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo and published by Simon & Shuster. ISBN 9780743233415, 256 pages. Typical price: GBP7. YYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
So authentic, where possible, not "adjusted" for the local taste is best if you can get it. Here, in what may appear to be a mixed message, the author presents many Chinese chicken recipes that assert their authentic roots whilst being presented for the American table. The title's specific reference to the American table was a little confusing, as unless the publisher was pandering to a perceived national insecurity there does not seem to be a special, overt 'American only' feel to the book.
To some the idea of an entire book dedicated to the chicken, chicken used within Chinese cookery, might seem a bit excessive, yet the lengthy introduction and veneration to the noble bird might help underline and reinforce why chicken plays an important part within Chinese cuisine. In keeping with similar books by the author, no prior knowledge or expertise of Chinese cuisine is assumed so there are many good primers about kitchen tools, the art of cooking Chinese cuisine, a look at "special" ingredients and so forth.
The recipes are split into chapters with, err, chicken... firstly as a small dish and appetiser; then soups; with rice, noodles, dumplings and bun and much more besides. From snack to feast and back again. Each recipe is accompanied by a brief introduction or scene-setter and here many useful tips and little bits of knowledge can be dispensed. In case you feel ambitious at your local Chinese restaurant a phonetic version of the dish's name is also given.
The recipes themselves are relatively easy to follow, or at least easy to understand, so as long as you follow them methodically and take advantage of the various primers and advice given, if required, you should not have a problem. In fact, compared to some similar books, the recipes are reassuringly more verbose!
There is just a little something about this book that this reviewer cannot put their finger on. Compared to other books by the same author there is just something missing. Like Chinese cookery, it can be just a very small thing that makes the difference. And no, it is not an overload of chicken! If the reviewer had not seen the other books it wouldn't have been worthy of a mention. This book in its own right is good, yet others by the author just feel, well, better, yet they serve different needs so it is not just a case of replacing one book with another. Still, if you like chicken and Chinese cuisine, this book would be a good fit. A vegetarian might feel somewhat disappointed though.
The Chinese Chicken Cookbook: 100 Easy-to-Prepare, Authentic Recipes for the American Table, written by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo and published by Simon & Shuster. ISBN 9780743233415, 256 pages. Typical price: GBP7. YYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
October 14, 2007
What gives "Shanghai Strange Taste Chicken" its strange taste? Is "Old Skin Chicken" as nasty as it sounds? Eileen Yin-Fei Lo (also the author of The Chinese Kitchen) answers these questions for non-Chinese cooks in a wonderfully useful and entertaining cookbook.
The recipes in The Chinese Chicken Cookbookare lucid and sufficiently adapted for non-Chinese cooks so as not to require a trip to Chinatown just to prepare dinner. (Some specialized ingredients, such as lotus leaves or preserved vegetable, are not used frequently in the recipes. They are worth exploring, however, and are easily mail-ordered.) Techniques, such as cutting up a chicken in the Chinese style, are clearly explained, easily mastered, and used again and again in the recipes.
The author introduces each recipe with explanations of the origins and associations of each dish, and she explains their sometimes confusing transliterated names.
Some of my favorite recipes include:
* Cinnamon-Scented Chicken (in which the chicken is first poached in a broth seasoned with anise, cinnamon, and tangerine, then fried in a light coating until golden brown)
* Lotus Leaf Rice with Chicken (a dim sum favorite turns out to be surprisingly easy to make at home)
* Chicken Steamed with Fresh Lemons (I always wondered what Lemon Chicken was really supposed to taste like. Now, I know.)
This cookbook could only have been improved by adding illustrations. Seeing some of the techniques may have been helpful, and a map of the various cooking regions of China would have saved me a trip to the Atlas.
The recipes in The Chinese Chicken Cookbookare lucid and sufficiently adapted for non-Chinese cooks so as not to require a trip to Chinatown just to prepare dinner. (Some specialized ingredients, such as lotus leaves or preserved vegetable, are not used frequently in the recipes. They are worth exploring, however, and are easily mail-ordered.) Techniques, such as cutting up a chicken in the Chinese style, are clearly explained, easily mastered, and used again and again in the recipes.
The author introduces each recipe with explanations of the origins and associations of each dish, and she explains their sometimes confusing transliterated names.
Some of my favorite recipes include:
* Cinnamon-Scented Chicken (in which the chicken is first poached in a broth seasoned with anise, cinnamon, and tangerine, then fried in a light coating until golden brown)
* Lotus Leaf Rice with Chicken (a dim sum favorite turns out to be surprisingly easy to make at home)
* Chicken Steamed with Fresh Lemons (I always wondered what Lemon Chicken was really supposed to taste like. Now, I know.)
This cookbook could only have been improved by adding illustrations. Seeing some of the techniques may have been helpful, and a map of the various cooking regions of China would have saved me a trip to the Atlas.
February 25, 2011
Accessible chinese recipes for the new cook.
April 16, 2017
This is my favorite cookbook. It's super specific, great breakdowns, well written recipes. I love it. It's just the best. It's all about chicken in various forms. Whole Chicken, quarters, pieces, entrees, side dishes, soups, everything. It's comprehensive. And, I just can't express how important a well worded recipe is.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews