Taiwanese Sesame Oil Chicken Soup : Easy and Simple Taiwanese Soup, gluten free (正宗麻油雞)

Hello, everybody. Welcome to Mrs. Lin's Kitchen. In today's video, I'll show you how to make Taiwanese sesame oil chicken soup or 麻油鸡汤 in Mandarin Chinese. 麻 means sesame, 油 is oil, 鸡 is chicken, and 汤 means soup. This is an authentic and hearty dish for Taiwanese, especially during the winter months because this dish is considered warm or wholesome. This soup is often made for women who have given birth or for people who simply want to feel warmer during the cold weather. Here is the ingredients overview. You can use chicken legs, wings, drumstick, or chicken thighs with bone. I like using organic chicken with bone because the meat is juicier and more flavorful. But feel free to use your favorite part of the chicken. The rice wine to water ratio is 1 to 1. I use half bottle of rice wine which is about 400 ml. If you cannot find rice wine or 米酒, you can use beer instead. After 10 to 15 minutes of cooking, the alcohol will completely evaporate. Traditionally, black sesame oil is used because the flavor of this oil is more intense and it's perfect for this wholesome recipe. Black sesame oil is quite common in Asian supermarkets. However, if you really cannot find this ingredient, feel free to substitute with regular sesame oil. Let's prepare the ingredients. First, thinly slice the ginger. It's better to leave the skin on because it gives more flavor. But make sure to rinse the ginger very well before cutting. Next, I'm chopping the chicken drumsticks in half because I prefer the smaller pieces. If you use small chicken parts like wings or legs, you can skip this step. Make sure to use the bottom tip of the cleaver where there's more force to get a clean chop. Do the same if you use thigh with bones. Make sure you rinse and pat dry the chicken before cooking. We're now ready to start cooking. In a wok or pan, add 4 tbsp of black sesame oil. Then add the ginger slices and fry them at low heat until the skin looks wrinkled and dried up. At this point, ginger flavor is completely infused in the sesame oil. Next, add the chicken. Raise the heat to high and fry until it's no longer pink. Make sure the chicken is dry before adding them into oil to prevent the oil from splattering. When the chicken is no longer pink, add in half bottle of rice wine and half bottle of water. Give it a good stir. Close the lid and let it simmer between 10 to 15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Instead of half rice wine and half water, you can also use the entire bottle of rice wine without adding water for more wine flavor. Rice wine has a lower boiling point than water so alcohol will evaporate after cooking for 10 to 15 minutes. This is my sesame oil chicken after 15 minutes of cooking. You want to make sure the chicken is cooked through completely. Chicken should naturally be slightly salty so I never add salt to this dish. But feel free to add salt if needed. You can taste the soup first and add some salt if you think it's not salty enough. Sometimes I add dried goji berries sparingly to add sweetness to this dish. Just add it toward the end of cooking. You can enjoy the sesame oil chicken by itself, serve it with steamed rice or make noodle soup. To make the noodle soup, prepare the noodle per instruction on the package. Place noodle into your serving bowl and pour the sesame oil chicken soup over. Traditionally, a thin noodle called mi sua is used but you can use any other thin noodle. Make sure to use gluten-free noodle if you have gluten allergy. I hope you will like this recipe. Taiwanese believe the combination of rice wine, black sesame oil, and ginger will help with blood circulation so it's perfect for cold weather. If you give this recipe a try or have tried it before, let me know in the comment area below how do you think about it. Make sure you give me a big thumbs up, subscribe, and click the notification bell. Thanks for watching. Stay warm and happy holidays. I'll see you in my next video.