Chinese Chicken Parcels Recipes

CHINESE CHICKEN PARCELS

Steps:

• Remove and discard the core and outer leaves from the cabbage, undo the remaining cabbage leaves and place them in a pan of salted boiling water for 2 minutes to soften. Cool them in a bowl of cold water, drain and put to one side.
• In a food processor, whizz up your garlic, ginger, spring onions, coriander, chilli and fish sauce with a good pinch of salt. Then add the chicken, water chestnuts, lime zest and juice and sesame oil and pulse until you have a minced meat consistency.
• Place a heaped dessertspoonful of the flavoured mince on to one end of each cabbage leaf. Fold it up and tuck in the sides, then roll up. Rub a bamboo steamer, colander or normal steamer with a little olive oil and place in the cabbage parcels. They may try to unfold themselves, but once you start putting them next to each other they will hold in place. When they're all in, sit the steamer over a pan of boiling water, making sure the water doesn't touch the parcels and that it's just the steam that's cooking them. Put a lid on top and steam for about 6 minutes until cooked. If you're worried about the cooking time, take one of the parcels out and cut it in half to make sure that the heat has penetrated and that they're cooked.

CURRIED CHICKEN PARCELS

Steps:

• Heat the oil and fry the onion, butternut squash and sweet potato for about 10 minutes.
• Add the chicken and fry until browned on the outside and nearly done.
• Add the curry paste and coconut milk and simmer for another 10 minutes.
• Take the pan of the heat and stir in the corriander.
• Roll out the pastry and cut out four 17 centimetre circles.
• Divide the filling between the pastry circles.
• Beat the egg and brush the edges of the pastry circles.
• Fold the pastry over to form a semi-circle and seal the edges by pressing them down with a fork.
• Brush the tops of the parcels with the rest off the beaten egg and sprinkle with the poppy seeds.
• Chill in the fridge for half an hour (I never really bother with this) and then bake in a pre-heated oven (200 C, 400 F or Gas Mark 6) for about 30 to 40 minutes until golden.

CHICKEN PARCELS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 190°C.
• Mix together garlic, chopped sage, mustard, honey, lemon juice and soy sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Place each chicken breast on foil and drizzle with lemon mixture, top with a piece of sage, and piece of lemon.
• Fold foil to enclose chicken and make parcels.
• Place in a roasting pan and cook for 25 minutes or until cooked through.
• Open chicken parcels, remove sage and lemon and serve, drizzled with sauce.