Sauna Chicken has become my new favorite because it really shows how Cantonese cooking can be so simple but still incredibly delicious and flavorful. It takes a few minutes to put together and no complicated technique or fancy sauce needed.
The name is pretty much straightforward. The chicken will be steamed but we don’t need a steamer. You can make it in a rice cooker or a regular pot over the stove. The chicken will be layered over some high-water-content vegetables, such as daikon radish, carrot, or winter melon, so the meat is not touching the heat source directly. As the vegetables cook, they will release moisture, and the chicken will be steamed gently. All the good flavors will percolate slowly and infuse into the daikon radish. Everything is gonna be delicious.
Ingredients 400g / 14 oz boneless chicken meat, cut into bite-sized pieces 2 tbsp of minced garlic 2 tsp of minced ginger 2 scallions, diced and separate the white and green parts 2.5 tbsp of soy sauce 2 tbsp of oyster sauce 1/4 tsp of salt 1/4 tsp of sand ginger powder 1/4 tsp of white pepper 1.5 tsp of soaked and minced aged tangerine peel, optional (if you don’t have it, use 1 tsp of orange zest.) 1 tbsp of cornstarch 2 tbsp of vegetable oil 500g / 1.1 lb daikon radish, cut into bite-sized cubes (you want to use watery vegetables, like radish and winter melon, zucchini)
113g / 4 oz of Cordyceps flower (虫草花) or your favorite mushrooms 3 tbsp aged tangerine peel soaking water or chicken stock
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Video Summary
AI Generated
This video demonstrates how to make Cantonese Sauna Chicken, a simple yet flavorful dish that uses a steaming technique without requiring a traditional steamer. By layering marinated chicken over high-water content vegetables in a rice cooker or pot, the meat remains tender while the vegetables absorb the savory juices, resulting in a comforting, authentic home-cooked meal.
Hi everyone, welcome to souped up recipes. Today we're making sauna chicken. This is a dish that
really shows how Cantonese cooking can be so simple, but still incredibly delicious and flavorful.
It takes about 10 minutes to put everything together, no fancy sauce or complicated technique
needed. The name is pretty much straightforward, so the chicken will be steamed, but you don't
need a steamer. You can make it in the rice cooker or a regular pot over the stove top.
It's just so so good that it has become my new favorite chicken recipe. So let's get started.
You will need some boneless chicken, but I only have chicken legs today,
so I'm just gonna debone them. You can use chicken breast if that's what you like,
then it will be so much less work because you don't have to go through the messy deboning process.
Save the bones for other purposes and cut the meat into bite-sized pieces.
This is a classic Cantonese dish, and we really care about the ingredient quality.
Lots of Cantonese folks buy live chicken from the wet market, so if you want to hit that
authentic Cantonese standard, it's best to get non-frozen or even organic chicken.
The marinade is simple. 2 tbsp of finely minced garlic, 2 tsp of finely minced ginger,
some white part of the scallions, I reserved the green part for garnish, 2.5 tbsp of soy sauce,
2 tbsp of oyster sauce, a quarter tsp of salt, a quarter tsp of white pepper,
a quarter tsp of sand ginger powder. For those of you who don't know about this ingredient,
it's called sha jiang in Chinese, also known as camphoria galangal. It's not spicy like
regular ginger, but it has an intense peppery smell with a mix of ginger, citrus, and camphor
like aroma. You can buy it online, I'll link it in the pinned comment. It usually comes in dry
root slices like this. You have to lightly toast them and grind them into a fine powder before
using. 1.5 tsp of minced aged tangerine peel, aka chen pi. It looks like this. I just soak it
in water one hour in advance, then finely mince it. It is optional, but it does provide a warm
citrus aroma, making this dish really special. I'll link it in the pinned comment so you can
purchase it online. If you don't have it, replace it with 2 tsp of lemon peel zest.
Or you can watch this video to learn how to age your own chen pi at home.
Continue by adding 1 tbsp of cornstarch and 2 tbsp of vegetable oil. Mix thoroughly and set
the chicken aside. I'm cooking this in a rice cooker because it cooks at low and unlike that,
it has a timer. If you're making this on the stove using a regular pot, you just have to
maintain the heat at low. I know you're gonna ask about a slow cooker. Well, I have never owned
a slow cooker, but I assume it will also work. First, we will layer the bottom with some high
water content vegetables. I'm using daikon radish that I cut into cubes. If you don't have it,
carrot, winter melon, and zucchini are also great options. This is chong cao hua, aka cordyceps
flower. But it's not a flower at all. It's an artificially grown fungus. I think it's more like
a mushroom. It tastes mild and earthy and is widely used in Chinese cuisine for its nutrition
properties. If you don't have it, feel free to replace it with your favorite kinds of mushrooms
such as enoki, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms. Place in the marinated chicken and spread it out
in a single layer. This way, the chicken is not touching the heat source directly. The bottom
vegetable layer will release moisture as it cooks and the chicken will be steamed gently. This is
the aged tangerine peel soaking water. If you don't have it, replace it with 3 tablespoons of
chicken stock. All the good flavors will percolate slowly and infuse into the daikon radish. It's
gonna be delicious. Set the timer for 40 minutes and we will wait. That's it. Such an easy, comforting
home-cooked meal. You just let good ingredients cook slowly together and time does the rest.
The chicken comes out tender and fragrant. The daikon becomes soft and almost like a sponge,
soaking up all the savory chicken goodness. The sand ginger and chen pi are what give this dish
its unique Cantonese character and it is really special. I hope you give this a try soon. As always,
the printable recipe link is in the pinned comment. Go check it out. Don't forget to
like and subscribe to my channel for more easy and delicious Chinese food.
Thank you for watching and I'll see you next time. Bye!
