With the Asian cuisines influence, my everyday cooking often requires chopping to get the right sizes of meat. When I was living in Taiwan, I could always ask the butchers to chop or cut for me at the traditional markets. However, this type of services are not alway available in supermarkets here in the States.
Just this past week… Things happened! While I was trying to chop a chicken drum stick, the knife was broken into half… the blade bounced back and cut my finger before dropping to the floor. Even it wasn’t a sever cut, my finger was bleeding quite much. That was definitely a scary thing. So DO NOT USE THE WRONG equipment to do the thing.
老公馬上說…這太危險了⚠️趕快去買把好刀回來用！
所以立馬上網訂好了物色的剁刀！
Then, my husband told me I should get a real good quality meat cleaver for safety and better efficiency. I then ordered one online right away! 😉😁👍
As a big fan of cooking, I ALWAYS wanna have a set of German Zwilling or Japanese Shun knives . But since Japanese knives are thinner and more for fine cutting. I decided to buy Zwilling Twin Four Stat II 6-inch Cleaver as my first meat cleaver.
I saw in a Facebook group, people recommended the Trader Joe’s Heirloom Whole Chicken for many yummy Asain chicken dishes. I found this super easy recipe from Laura’s Kitchen to make Hainanese Chicken Rice dish. All you need is a steamer rice cooker to make this dish. Super easy and fast to make!
食材：
全雞 一隻 （我用 Trader Joe’s Heirloom 全雞）
薑一塊 切片
蔥 一大把 約十枝
鹽 一大茶匙
白胡椒粉 一大茶匙
薑黃粉 一大茶匙
白米 4 杯 （可以用一般白米、壽司米、或是泰式香米）
麻油 一小茶匙 （可以可無，增添香味的）
Ingredients:
1 Whole chicken (I used Trader Joe’s Heirloom Chicken)
Ginger 1 chunk, sliced
green Onion, a big bunch or about 10 sticks, cut into 2 inches or 5 cm length.
Salt 1 TBSP (Table Spoon)
white pepper 1 TBS
Turmeric powder 1TBS
White rice 4 cups ( you can use short grain rice, sushi rice or Jasmine rice)
Sesame oil 1 tsp (teaspoon) (this is optional for more fragrance and taste)
作法 How to:
把鹽、胡椒粉、薑黃粉拌在一起。 Mix white pepper, salt and turmeric powder.Dry the chicken with paper towel if needed. 先把全雞拿出來用紙巾擦乾備用Dry rub the chicken with mix. And marinate the meat in a fridge for 4-5 hours. 把調和的粉均勻塗抹在雞上！ 放在冰箱醃4-5 小時after 4-5 hours, put the marinated chicken in the inner pot of the steamer rice cooker. 過了四五個小時以後，把冰箱裡醃好的全雞放到大同電鍋的內鍋裡。然後把切好的薑片和蔥段豪放的撒在雞上面。Then add the sliced ginger and cut green onions on top of the chicken.外鍋加水一杯，插電按下烹煮開關。Use a steamer rice cooker. Add a cup of water to outer pot. Put on the lid and plug in. Then push down the cooking valve.
while the chicken is been cooked in a steamer cooker, let’s make the ginger green onion sauce.
趁全雞蒸煮的過程，我們來做簡易蔥薑醬！
把薑切成薑末約半杯量杯、蔥切成蔥花約一杯量杯備用。 Half cup of minced ginger(fresh ginger) and one cup of fresh minced green onion.Heat 3/4 cup of cooking oil( not olive oil cuz it can’t tolerate high heat.) 加熱大約三分之四杯的沙拉油（不建議使用橄欖油，因為橄欖油的耐熱點不適合高溫）等到油加熱到呈細紋狀，就可以先把薑末放下去半炒了以後有香味，再加上蔥末進去炒然後加一小匙的鹽。就可以盛到小碗裡配這雞肉吃！ when the oil is heated and forms tiny wavy lines, sauté the minced ginger first till fragrant. Then add in the minced green onions to the pan and stir till cooked. Add a teaspoon of salt for seasoning. Then the sauce is ready to go with the chicken.When the chicken is done with the steaming, let it simmer in the steamer cooker for another 20-30 minutes. Use a pick to insert the chicken breast part and see if it has any blood comes out. If not, the chicken is ready. 雞肉蒸熟以後，繼續保溫20至30分鐘。再用一個尖的物體試試看會不會流出血水，如果沒有話就是熟了。取出全雞放在一旁冷卻，我們現在猶他州是冬天，所以我就用一個東西蓋住它放在車庫裡面降溫約20-30分鐘。 Take the chicken out and let cool. It is winter now in Utah, I used something to cover the chicken and let it cool in the garage for another half an hour.蒸過的薑和蔥就不要了，然後把鍋裡面的雞油倒出來備用等一下可以做飯。Discard the cooked ginger and green onions, and drain the chicken oil for rice cooking later.用另外一個乾淨的鍋子洗四杯米，瀝乾水分以後，倒進剛剛蒸煮雞的內鍋。 use another mixing bowl to wash and clean 4 cups of rice. Drain all the water, and put the clean rice into the inner pot that we just used to cooked chicken.mix the chicken oil and water to make it into a 4 cups of liquid broth. 用剛剛倒出來的雞油配上水做成一個四杯量的雞湯。然後把雞湯加入剛剛洗乾淨的白米，然後再加上一點點的麻油。外鍋+1杯的清水，蓋上蓋子以後按下開關煮飯。Pour broth into the clean rice and a drizzle of sesame oil. Add a cup of clean water to the outer pot. Put on the lid. And press down the cooking valve. Let it cooks the rice.飯蒸煮好了以後，把它拌開拌鬆。When the rice is cooked, make sure to mix it up and fluff it.用一個很小的碗，把飯盛進去壓緊！ Pack some rice into a tiny bowl.然後倒扣在盤子上。Then flip the bowl onto a plate.voila ! 登愣！可愛的一球飯就出來囉！that’s how you shape the rice! 💕It’s time to chop the chicken! 終於要開動用刀剁雞了！從中間先剖成兩半 cut the chicken in half first!我們第一次砍全雞，所以還沒有很漂亮，讓我多砍幾次以後就會出師了！😅😅😂 刀子整體用起來感覺還不錯，我覺得可能剛買回來還沒磨過刀，我覺得刀可以再磨一下讓他更鋒利一點，然後六英寸的刀跟平常我們在台灣看到的大剁刀比起來感覺秀珍，所以如果喜歡很大的刀子的話建議要買再大一些，但是我覺得這個對我來講已經夠大了！而且最主要就是他是一個對的工具，手感不錯，質感也很好，我在手上的重量也對，德國的鋼刀真的蠻厲害的！！Our first time chopping the whole chicken… not the prettiest. Let me practice and chop more chicken and maybe will become a master of chopping in the future 😂 I didn’t sharpen the cleaver. I felt it could be sharpen a bit more. This 6-inches cleaver is a bit smaller than the big cleavers I have seen in Taiwan or Chinese restaurants… so, if you like those ones, you should order a bigger one. But general speaking, I like this cleaver for the quality and the feel of of weight! It does the job pretty well!放上一些小黃瓜還有小蕃茄，或是任何你喜歡的蔬菜，就是一盤超美味的海南雞飯了！Add some sliced cucumbers and tomatoes or any veggies you like. Enjoy this yummy healthy meal of Hainanese Chicken Rice dish at home!
