Ginger Wrapped Chicken with Rice

The final dish - with spring onions garnished on top

So the next item that I made on Sunday was Ginger Wrapped Chicken with Rice; sounds interesting, no? The first time I had heard this dish was about like 6 years back in university and I was at a friend's place for a project or a get-together and she mentioned that she made this dish; now this friend of mine (who might just be surprised that I remember this conversation till date) makes really awesome food and back when I was just discovering my interest in food, I used to love having food at her place because it was so delicious and innovative. So that dish just remained in the back of my mind and while browsing online, I came across this recipe and I was just like oh, this must be that same recipe.

Tried it and it was just delicious; the recipe serves enough for like 8 people, so I halved it and with the chowmein that I had made with it, there was so much food leftover that it was enough for lunch and dinner the next day. I loved how like the Singaporean Rice this was one meal in itself. It had that oriental Chinese touch but there was no need to make rice and gravy separately because it all mixed together in this beautiful fusion of flavors.

Mixing it all together

Ginger Wrapped Chicken with Rice (Serves 8) 
Adapted from Shireen Anwer 

The recipe serves eight people easily, so I halved it since I was making for less people 
Ingredients

Boneless chicken (cut into strips)    ½ kg

Rice boiled ½ kg

Spring onion       1 handful

Carrots thinly sliced         1

Capsicum thinly sliced    1

Green chilies sliced 3-4

Stocks 3 cups
I just used 1 chicken cube dissolved in about 1.5 cups of water, however, I would recommend adding the stock carefully, because I added all of it together and it got too watery, and then I needed to boil the water off

Water   ¼ cup

White pepper ½ tsp heaped

Corn flour 2 tbsp

Ginger sliced 2 tbsp

Soya sauce 3 tbsp

Chili sauce 3 tbsp

Ketchup 4 tbsp

Chili oil 6 tbsp
To make chilli oil, take 1 cup of oil and heat till it smokes; let it cool to room temperature then add 2 tbsp of red pepper flakes and 1 tbsp of red chilli powder; let it infuse for 4-6 hours and then strain it through a fine muslin cloth.

Unveiling the Surprise Filling Inside

Method

Dissolve 2 tbsp corn flour in ¼ cup water. Heat 4 tbsp chili oil, add 2 tbsp sliced ginger, ½ kg chicken strips and salt to taste, sauté for few minutes. Now add 1 thinly sliced carrots, 1 thinly sliced capsicum, 3-4 sliced green chilies. Add 3 cups stocks, ½ tsp heaped white pepper, 3 tbsp soya sauce, 3 tbsp chili sauce and 4 tbsp ketchup. Thicken with corn flour paste but gradually add the corn flour so that it doesn't get too thicky. The consistency should be saucy instead of very thick or too watery. Add spring onion right at the end so its maintains its color. As an alternative, I garnished the dish with spring onion because I forgot to add it earlier and I think that gives a beautiful look too. 

Take a big piece of foil and layer it in a dish. Put half of boiled rice, then spread chicken mixture, top with remaining rice. Put 2 tbsp chili oil on top, wrap and bake in a medium oven for 20 minutes.Unwrap at the table and mix it all up. Garnish with spring onions.

As an alternative this can also be made in a big pot, and layered similar to the way biryani is in case someone does not have an oven at home.