Recipe of Award-winning Har Cheong Gai | Shrimp Paste Chicken

Hey everyone, hope you’re having an amazing day today. Today, we’re going to make a special dish, har cheong gai | shrimp paste chicken. It is one of my favorites food recipes. For mine, I’m gonna make it a little bit unique. This will be really delicious.

Har Cheong Gai

To get started with this particular recipe, we must first prepare a few components. You can cook har cheong gai | shrimp paste chicken using 15 ingredients and 5 steps. Here is how you can achieve that.

The ingredients needed to make Har Cheong Gai | Shrimp Paste Chicken:

1. Make ready 4.5 TBSP Granulated Sugar,
2. Prepare 3 TBSP Lee Kum Kee's Shrimp Paste,
3. Get 3/4 Cup Tapioca Starch,
4. Get 3 TBSP Rice Flour,
5. Get 3 TBSP Shao Xing / Hua Diao Wine,
6. Get 3 TBSP Oyster Sauce,
7. Take 3 TBSP Light Soy Sauce,
8. Make ready 3 Egg Lightly Beaten,
9. Take Pinch Sea Salt,
10. Prepare Canola / Peanut / Vegetable Oil, For Frying
11. Prepare Pinch White Pepper,
12. Take 1/4 Cup Lee Kum Kee's Plum Sauce,
13. Take 1/4 Cup Lao Gan Ma's Chili Crisp,
14. Take Pinch Dried Mushroom Powder,
15. Make ready 1 kg Chicken Flats,

Rumors even have it that Chef Loh made his own shrimp paste. But Lee Kum Kee's is pretty close, I should say. Shrimp Paste Chicken is a uniquely Singaporean way of cooking deep-fried chicken! Regular batter is replaced with a special shrimp paste batter, so that the wing packs a punch full of flavour.

Instructions to make Har Cheong Gai | Shrimp Paste Chicken:

1. In a large bowl, add sugar, shrimp paste, tapioca starch, rice flour, Shao Xing wine, oyster sauce and soy sauce. - - Stir to combine well and until smooth, making sure no large lumps. - - Add in eggs, salt, pepper and mushroom powder. - - Whisk until well combined.
2. Add in the chicken flats. - - Toss and coat the chicken well with the batter. - - Make sure the chicken is fully submerged in the batter.
3. Cover with cling film and marinate in the fridge overnight. - - Prepare a dutch oven with 2 inches of oil over medium heat. - - To check the temperature of the oil, insert a wooden chopstick. If bubbles start to form around the chopstick, the temperature of the oil is ready for frying.
4. Using a pair of tongs, gently drop the chicken into the oil away from you. - - Do not discard the marinade. - - Spoon some of the marinade over the chicken to create a crispy skirt. - - Deep fried until golden brown on both sides.
5. Remove from heat and drain off excess oil on a wire cooling rack or on a plate lined with parchment paper. - - In a small bowl, mix plum sauce and Lao Gan Ma's chili crisp well. This will be the dipping sauce. - - Serve the chicken immediately with the dipping sauce.

Shrimp Paste Chicken is a uniquely Singaporean way of cooking deep-fried chicken! Regular batter is replaced with a special shrimp paste batter, so that the wing packs a punch full of flavour. My first taste of it was at the Loy Sum Juan Restaurant, located at Pearl's Hill (Outram) years ago (a place that probably only old-timers would remember). Har Cheong Gai is first marinated and then dipped into a batter or dusted with a flour mixture and left to marinade overnight before deep frying it the following day. WARNING: The moment you open the bottle of Shrimp Paste, the smell will "stink up" the whole house so ensure that you close all the rooms' doors and open your windows.

Information on How to Improve Your Mood with Food

In general, people have been trained to think that “comfort” foods are not good for the body and should be avoided. At times, if your comfort food is a high sugar food or another junk food, this is very true. Soemtimes, comfort foods can be very healthy and good for us to eat. A number of foods honestly do raise your mood when you consume them. When you are feeling a little down and are in need of an emotional pick-me-up, try some of these.

Eggs, you may be surprised to learn, are terrific at fighting depression. Just be sure that you don’t get rid of the egg yolk. The egg yolk is the most essential part of the egg in terms of helping raise your mood. Eggs, the yolk in particular, are stuffed full of B vitamins. B vitamins can be terrific for elevating your mood. This is because they help in bettering the function of your neural transmitters, the parts of your brain that control your mood. Consume an egg and cheer up!

Build a trail mix out of seeds and/or nuts. Your mood can be improved by consuming peanuts, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and other types of nuts. This is possible as these foods are rich in magnesium which raises serotonin production. Serotonin is referred to as the “feel good” chemical and it tells your brain how you should be feeling at all times. The more serotonin in your brain, the better you’ll feel. Nuts, in addition to improving your mood, can be a great source of protein.

Cold water fish are wonderful for eating if you want to fight depression. Salmon, herring, tuna, mackerel, trout, etc, they’re all loaded with omega-3 fatty acids and DHA. These are two substances that increase the quality and function of the gray matter in your brain. It’s true: consuming a tuna fish sandwich can really help you overcome depression.

It’s not difficult to drive away your bad mood when you consume grains. Quinoa, barley, millet, etc are fantastic at helping you have a happier mood. They help you feel full as well which can actually help to improve your mood. Feeling hungry can be terrible! The reason these grains are so great for your mood is that they are not hard to digest. You digest them more quickly than other things which can help promote your blood sugar levels, which, in turn, helps make you feel happier, mood wise.

Your mood can actually be helped by green tea. You knew it had to be included in this article, right? Green tea is loaded with an amino acid referred to as L-theanine. Research has found that this amino acid stimulates the production of brain waves. This will better your brain’s concentration while at the same calming the rest of your body. You knew that green tea helps you be healthier. Now you know that green tea can elevate your mood also!

So you see, you don’t need to eat all that junk food when you are wanting to feel better! Try some of these instead!