How to Make Sugarcane Steamed Chicken: Sweet, Fragrant, and Unique
Besides traditional boiled chicken, you can change up the taste with sugarcane steamed chicken. The method for cooking sugarcane steamed chicken isn't difficult. You just need to pay a little attention to the steaming time to ensure the chicken is fully cooked and keeps its moist sweetness inside.
Ingredients
- 2.5-3kg of chicken meat
- 1 sugarcane stalk ~ 1.6kg
- 2-3 dry onions, 1 ginger slice, 2-3 lime leaves, 1 hot chili
- Turmeric powder or 1 fresh turmeric slice
- Spices: salt, MSG, ground pepper
Ingredient Notes
- To make delicious steamed chicken, you should choose free-range chicken. Both young and old chicken can be used, but typically Cookbeo will choose older chicken as the meat is firmer and chewier.
- There are mainly two types of sugarcane: green sugarcane and purple sugarcane, which can be distinguished based on the color of the sugarcane husk. Choose a round, firm, slightly dark-colored sugarcane for more sweetness.
Instructions
Prepping the Chicken
Rinse chicken with salt and ginger wine to clean and deodorize.
Next, put two teaspoons of salt into a mortar, add ginger, chili, and lime leaves, then crush into a fine paste.
Apply this mixture onto the chicken. Sprinkle in some crushed pepper and turmeric powder. The amount of turmeric depends on your preference for how richly golden you want the chicken skin to be. If not using turmeric powder, you can crush a small fresh turmeric bulb.
Spread this mixture all over the chicken skin and inside the chicken. Let the chicken marinate for about 20-30 minutes.
Peel the sugarcane, cut into chunks, rinse clean, and let it drain. Crush the sugarcane so that during the steaming process, the sweetness and aroma of the sugarcane will permeate the chicken.
Making the Dipping Sauce for the Steamed Chicken with Sugarcane
The simplest dipping sauce for steamed chicken is a pepper, lime, chili mix. Add chicken broth powder, sprinkle in some crushed pepper. Next, shred the lime leaves and chili. Cut a fresh lime in half, when ready to eat, squeeze the juice in and stir well.
You can also prepare some mint leaves and cucumber to enjoy with the steamed chicken, which is very tasty.
Steaming the Chicken with Sugarcane
First, arrange the crushed sugarcane at the bottom of the steamer. Then, fill the steamer with water to just over half the thickness of the sugarcane. Bring this mixture to a boil.
When the water boils, put the chicken in to steam. Before putting the chicken in, you can make a lengthwise cut into the chicken breast, spreading it out for faster and more even cooking. Cover the steamer, reduce the heat, and let it simmer. For a chicken weighing about 2.5-3kg, steam for about 30 minutes at a simmering heat until the chicken is cooked. If steaming a smaller chicken or a young chicken, the steaming time will be shorter. You can poke the chicken thigh to check the cooking time.
After 30 minutes of steaming, turn off the heat and continue to let the chicken stay in the steamer for about 15-20 minutes to ensure it's thoroughly cooked and, importantly, to retain the moist sweetness inside. After over 15 minutes in the steamer, take the chicken out and enjoy.
The steamed chicken with sugarcane is very fragrant, well-cooked, and sweet. The chicken broth is very sweet and aromatic, you can add a bit of seasoning to make a soup. Steamed chicken with sugarcane dipped with pepper, lime, chili sauce, served with some cucumber and mint leaves is very delicious.
