Steam Herbal Chicken

We loved to cook this Steam Herbal Chicken at least twice or once a weeks with either Half a chicken, chicken wings or chicken drumsticks to make a range of varieties. It is actually more healthier to prepare this dish using those Chinese herbs rather than those pre-mixed powder which you can purchase from any supermarket.


My methods of preparing this dish might be different from other recipes because there are many ways to this dish and you can add in extra or remove certain herbs that you don't prefer. So for my case, the ingredients will be as follow........

Ingredients: (serves 2)
Half Chicken/5 Chicken Wings/4 Drumsticks
4 Red Dates(红枣)
2 Black Dates, optional(黑枣)
1 Teaspoon Of Gou Ji Zi(杞子)
3-4 Slices of Dang Gu(当归)
1 - 2 Stalks Of Dang Sheng(当参), cut into 1" long
2 Slices Of Huai Shan(淮山)
1 Slice Of Bei Qi
A few Slices Of Yu Zhu(玉竹)
Sauce:
1 Teaspoon Of Sesame Oil
1 Teaspoon Of Dark Soy Sauce
150ml Water/Rice Wine
1.5 Tablespoon Of Oyster Sauce

Methods:
1. Put all the herbs in a plate or bowl then rinse with water and drained then set aside for later use.
2. Wash and pat dry the chicken the rub it evenly with 1 or 1/2 Teaspoon Of Salt and 1 teaspoon of ginger juice.
3. Get ready a sheet of aluminum Foil and place it ontop of a plate then spread some herbs on it then top with the chicken then herbs.
4. Mixed all the sauce mixture together then pour it over the chicken.(If using those traditional rice wine then no need to include the oyster sauce).
5. Wrap up the chicken nicely like a parcel form then place it on the plate then place in the steam and steam for about 20 minutes, removed, open the parcel and turn the chicken pieces so that it will coat with the sauce then re-wrapped it again and steam for a further 10-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked thru.

Notes: If you are using those small spring chicken, then you might need to increase the amount of herbs by twice/triple as well as the sauce so that the chicken will be absorbing the sauce from those herbs.
I found that using those traditional rice wine to make the sauce, the chicken will taste much more better and sweeter maybe because of the wine itself.....