Carmelised Onion with Pan fried Chicken Cutlet (De Boned Chicken Thighs)

Tried a new western recipe - Caramalised Chicken Thigh Cutlets. Takes about 20mins to prepare in advance and another 20mins to cook.

Ingredients

- 2 teaspoons veg oil

- 4 chicken thigh cutlets skin on (800g) WITHOUT bone.

- 1 medium red onion, sliced thinly

- 3 garlic cloves, sliced thinly

- 1/4cup (55g) brown sugar (I usually put less than this. it's up to individual preference)

- 1Tablespoon dark soy sauce

- 1 Tablespoon fish sauce

- 1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh coriander

Cooking steps

1. Preheat Oven to 200/180 degree cel. fan forced

2. Heat oil in frying pan, pan fry chicken till brown on both sides. Then place chicken in baking tray to bake (uncovered) for another 2-5min till cook through.

3. At the same time, heat clean pan. Reuse a small amount of the oil (previously used to pan fried chicken) and cook onion, garlic stirring until onion softens.

4. Add the sugar and sauces. (I personally will add a little water just to dilute it alittle if you are not using a non stick pan) Stir and cook for another 3 mins or so ( or until you visually see that onion has soften to the level that you like. Some like it more crunchy while like it really soft)

5. Return chicken to pan with coriander. Turn chicken to coat in sauce mixture.

Serve.

Personal Note: (What the recipe doesnt tell you)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- You can choose not to panfried the chicken till its brown. I just pan fry for about 5-10mins depending on how large the pieces are.

- I just panfried without oil in a non stick pan till the chicken fat is suitably melted before I chuck it into the oven. I personally would prefer Light olive oil instead of peanut oil.

- Always, always cook with the skin side first. The skin acts as an insulator preventing your meat from being cooked too quickly.

- Neither do I bake till the chicken is fully cook as instructed by recipe. Rather I had it baked till about almost cooked (i think 5 mins is a good gauge). The reason is that the chicken still need to undergo more heat cooking when mixing with the sauces. This way, the cutlet will not be tough from being overcooked. At least if its under cook (baked) , easy breezy, just stick it on the pan with sauce longer:P

- Or you can choose not to bake and just pan fry till the meat is cook.

Sweet and Sour Pork with Onions and Capsicums.

Tried cooking my mum's Sweet and Sour Pork for the first time, and it was a real success! Thank God!

I was too lazy to go get the pineapples but it turned out alrite though my cheeky husband was like "Where's the pineapple? I like the pineapples!" I had to tell him his wife is too tired and lazy to head out just to grab a can of pineapples and they didnt have fresh ones in the wet market in the morning.

When I was googling for Sweet and Sour pork recipes, I didnt realise there are so many variations out there just for the same dish. Interesting... the recipe mum gave me didnt come with onions but since I love onions, I added it in myself.

For some reason, I had always imagined it to be really difficult but it was actually much easier than expected. The trick is really to get the right portion of meat （梅頭瘦肉）that was "soft" and not "lean" giving the meat the right chew. The dish could be further perfected in terms of the frying part but at least the taste and flavoring was spot on. Phew!

Recipe

Ingredients
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400g pork meat
Green and red capsicums (half each in general. the amount varies depending on your preference)
150g pineapple  diced
potato starch/ corn flour
1tbsp minced garlic
2 red chillies (cut into think shreds)

Marinade
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1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chicken seasoning powder (w/o msg)
1tbsp potato starch/ corn flour

seasonings
--------------
*1 cup of sweet and sour sauce
a little potato starch mix


Cooking steps

Making the sweet and sour sauce
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Stir the following seasonings in a pot until sugar dissolve.
- 4tbsp tomato sauce
- 3 tbsp chilli sauce
- 3 tbsp plum sauce
- slightly less than 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1tbsp refined sugar
- 1 tbsp lime or lemon juice
- 1tsp salt
- 3/4 cup of water.

Note: 
*Do not cook too long to retain the sourness of vinegar. If possible, try dissolving the sugar with the 3/4 cup of water first before stirring it to boil with the rest of the sauce mix.

* Use Thail sweet chilli sauce for best mix. Since the bottled sauce taste different for different brand, vary your sugar/ salt level accordingly to the level that suit your taste.

Cooking the Meat
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1. Cut the pork into suitable bite size chunks and pound it with the back of the knife to tenderize it.
2. Add marinate and set aside for at least half hour - 1 hour. I did mine for 2 hours in the fridge for best flavor.
3. Cut capsicums into triangular pieces.
4. Coat the pork with starch or corn flour and deep fry in hot oil till golden brown. remove. Peanut oil is best for frying
5. Leave some oil in pan and fry garlic, chillies, capsicums, pineapple (onions optional) till fragrant.
6. Add the pre-prepared sweet and sour sour and bring it to boil.
7. Stir in fried pork and thicken with little potato starch/ corn flour.