This recipe is a childhood favorite of Tyson's. His Chinese grandmother used to make this every Sunday for family dinners. Tyson has recreated this recipe from memory and some trial and error plus a few tips from his father.
This recipe is for the traditional ginger chicken, but you could really season it with anything...lemon pepper, pollo asada seasoning, etc...
This is a little different technique than you might be expecting, but you will get perfectly seasoned chicken every time! Not to mention four cups of perfect soup broth each time you make this!
What you need:
Chicken drumsticks (we make 4-6 for the two of us. You can do as many as you like)
Kosher salt (Morton's is the favorite.)
Fresh ginger (2 - 3 slices per leg plus 1 tablespoon finely grated)
Prickly ash (szechuan peppercorns)
White pepper
You will need a steamer or rice cooker with steam basket. We like the rice cooker method because you get the broth in the bottom after cooking.
Here's what you do:
You take the chicken and thoroughly coat it with salt and the grated ginger. We used about 1/4 cup for the 4 chicken legs. Let's it sit.
Here is the breakdown for different types of chicken..
Regular size with no skin: 20 minutes
Regular size with skin: 25 minutes
Extra large with skin: 30 minutes (if you get your legs at the Asian market they will be larger than normal so they need a little longer)
After the proper amount of time, rinse the chicken thoroughly.
Place the chicken in the steamer basket and sprinkle lightly with white pepper. Then sprinkle the chicken legs with the prickly ash (prickly ash is not for everyone, so it is definitely optional.) and place the ginger slices on top.
Steam for roughly 30 - 45 minutes until the meat starts to recede from the bone.
Serve with rice and veggies. We made stir-fried you-choy with oyster sauce.
After the chicken steams, in the bottom of the rice cooker will be the most perfectly seasoned broth. Toss some noodles or seaweed in it for a nice soup the next day or use it in another recipe.
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