Cantonese "Fry Roast" Chicken (煎焗鸡)

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Hey guys, a few notes: 1. Apology #5148 in the ongoing series of “Chris apologizing to Cantonese speakers”. I - your narrator - lived in Shenzhen for most of my time in China, and so can unfortunately only speak Mandarin (heavily accented Mandarin at that!). Shenzhen’s this weird town because being smack dab in the middle of the PRD, you get a lot of exposure to Cantonese restaurants, dishes, etc… but it’s obviously very much a Mandarin-speaking city. So I started getting an emotional attachment to “dapaidang”, “chashao”, “chacanting”, and so forth which I imagine for a Cantonese speaker feels… a little wrong lol. Basically, I give it the ol’ college try in the narration when it comes to (1) Cantonese cultural institutions (e.g. Dai Pai Dong) and (2) dish names. I kept on flubbing up the Cantonese name for the dish in the narration (like… I kinda suck at this, I can *barely* execute a competent VO even in English haha), so I gave up and went with the Mandarin. Sorry about that. And yes, I know I do need to learn Cantonese, especially now that we live in Shunde and I have Cantonese in-laws… 2. For the restaurant, they don’t actually let the chicken sit after marinating - it goes straight into the pan. The time and cost pressures of the food industry and all that. At home, we get the luxury of allowing some time to marinate - 15-30 minutes was nice in our tests. 3. I know it was kinda hard to tell what we were doing when we were chopping up of the chicken leg. The clearest demonstration would be with the thigh portion but… I’m a moron and forgot to press play there. We showed a very similar approach with duck legs when we were making Sichuan Beer Duck (given that whole duck is kinda hard to find abroad), so if you’re still not 100%, check out that video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKDSiIVpp8d6Zq8 4. We’ll probably be straight up going that route in the videos in the future though, I think. I feel it might be the best way to ease people into eating bone-in: 1/3 of the pieces are completely boneless, and the remaining 2/3 have a very clear and obvious bone to eat around (so there’s no guess work). Plus, it’s a pretty easy introduction to cleaving - which’s something that, to be honest, we’re far from professionals in. That said, just know that it’s very much our own adaptation to the freakishly huge Western-style chickens (like, one leg is almost the weight of an entire chicken here), so we’re kind of flying blind. Quick question out of curiosity though - people with Chinese families that live outside of Asia… what’s your family’s approach to the large Western chickens? 5. So slight screw up - the restaurant didn’t add white pepper to their marinade. Whoops. Also, in the original video, you can see the owner of the restaurant questioning the head cook if that was enough cornstarch in the marinade. We went there again the other day to get some more b-roll (plus, support local businesses!), and this time I think… there was more cornstarch. So if you like, you can up the cornstarch quantity to ~1/2 tbsp or so. 6. Oh! Forgot to mention in the video (I was meaning to add text). If you want, you can use the white pepper and black pepper interchangeably in this recipe. I kind of liked the hitting the white pepper, the black pepper and the chili oil together… but the effect is super subtle. If you only have white pepper, use that; only black, use that. But if you have both in your cupboard, why not.

[@deathpyre42]

Could working a little roasted chicken bone marrow into the sauce replicate that boney soul without needing to cleave bones?

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

@@deathpyre42 it's less of a flavor and more of a... way of eating? Think the difference of a buffalo wing and a buffalo "boneless wing"

[@supertak50]

In America, our approach with the 3-4 lb birds is to break down the chicken. My father-in-law who was from Toishan used to separate the thigh from the drumstick. He would then open up the drumstick, leaving it partially attached to the bone and spread it out so it was the thickness of the bone in thigh. He would give a quick marinade andthen fry/roast the pieces as you guys do. Always perfectly brown, crisp and moist. (He was too impatient to prep the aromatics, though).

[@hannahrose7981]

Hey couldn't you add the sugar towards the end of cooking to help with the scorching issue or is it just not needed

[@meowcula]

This was a pretty cool pair of videos. I like the concept.

[@FoldingIdeas]

Had to make some substitutions in the veg to use up what I have in the fridge, but this was delicious. Filling without feeling heavy. Perfect for the first properly nice day we’ve had in a while.

[@austentallman1427]

Love your videos, fun to see that you watch another of my favorite channels

[@ellimiller8620]

This was not a crossover I was expecting but I'm here for it

[@robinstacpoole2667]

I think you can make three very different dishes changing the veg (1) mushroom (2) onion pepper (2) corn, onion Mangetout. Great dish, super easy and quick

[@melonenstrauch1306]

One of those wonderfully expected crossovers. Seems like you found a better recipe for chicken than Jamie's Bougie Bites!

[@Qn0Bi6]

Seeing Andong shoving a late night döner in his face killed me, almost spat my coffee over my keyboard laughing. Love the Videos, stay save!

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Haha that was actually a little bit tricky, I wrote the narration first... then discovered that all his footage was during the day. So that was my (sort of crappy) attempt to color-grade day into night. It's missing a lot of highlights in his face (i.e. what you'd see if there was actually lights or w/e), but hey, no one's called me out on it yet :)

[@Qn0Bi6]

​ Chinese Cooking Demystified lol, I didnt notice, that you tailored that scene to your needs. I guess you have seen the last video of andong and this is sort of the "backfire "

[@richardlohmann4013]

I love how Andong and you guys get more and more connected. He was the one getting me into chinese cooking and ever since then you were my go-to channel for new recepies (mapo tofu being my first real chinese dish besides fried rice/noodles). Much love from germany, stay save and keep uploading those amazing videos!

[@Apocalypz]

Honestly, man ... you two are absolute aces in my book. *thank you* for the past 2 years -- for me -- of Chinese cooking.

[@meowcula]

absolutely agreed.

[@Invictus_Mithra]

You should make a western supermarket club playlist!

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

We've got one! :) kzbin.info/aero/PLrwj0yE_2deD2GanAj_HEv5sILdckN4GB

[@lilstonerdiva5235]

Wow, love seeing you break down that bird. I've always wondered when I would need (get) to buy a Chinese style meat cleaver and now I have an excuse!

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

That's sort of our 'compromise break down' if that makes any sense haha. The chicken in the West is... different. Like, one leg is almost as big as an entire chicken here (that one was some frozen imported chicken from Brazil). If you wanna see it really proper check out Steph's Dad Dawei: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXKndKWZlsx5npI

[@wandarah]

A cleaver is almost exclusively what I use now; I don't know when this happened, but utility wise the cleaver is far and away the leader. Two cleavers can do the work of a mincer in only slightly more time, and you get to decide the granularity. I have knives worth hundreds of dollars, but goddamn if I don't default to the cleaver 90% of the time.

[@MnemeM]

wandarah I've done the same switch. Sure, I'll break out the pairing knife for some fiddly tasks but for everything else I just default to my cheapish carbon steel cleaver. the built in board scraper is just the killer feature. :D

[@Orcael]

I subscribe what I believe was fairly early on. It's been such a delight watching your base grow and the quality of your production and narration increase as you've really stabilized your footing. I'd say 8 times out of 10, the food is either a little too involved for me to invest the time, or the ingredients aren't easy enough to source, but I still watch every single video you upload simply for the education and passion. And when I do tackle a Chinese recipe, I always make sure I stop by your channel to see if you've got a video on it with extra tips -- which you almost always do! Love you guys, you take KZbin up a notch for me. :)

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Cheers! I know we do a lot of restaurant dishes, and also assume access to a Chinese supermarket. But the way I look at things... it's helpful to have a 'base' to go off of, if that makes any sense? Like, shortcuts & subs are totally understandable (and we do them when we're cooking for ourselves all the time), but I'd rather trust the *viewer* to make those shortcuts/subs themselves rather than us as recipe writers doing it for you?

[@randomdogdog]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified The great thing is that you're pretty open and clear about where shortcuts or subs make sense. I may have had my first stab at tea eggs the other day, and... let's just say I'm super keen to try ones in the 5 spice flavour profile that were simmered for 5 hours... That being said, I wouldn't even known where to start without your video. thanks.

[@genderender]

I made this the other day, including whipping up some almost failed hongyou to use in the marinade, and it was honestly one of the best chicken dishes I’ve ever had. I can see why you two love it so much haha. Definitely adding this to my list of simple recipes

[@frankyu553]

0 dislikes... a testament of how good your videos are 👍🏾

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Give it time haha. A lot of the first couple hours of people watching are kinda our core audience here, fellow food-obsessed people and so forth. Once KZbin sends it out into the ether... that's when you start to see a lot more dislikes and weird comments and so forth :)

[@ifedayo72]

Love the hand gestures even though you use a voice-over!! It's like a character of its own!! 🤣🤣🤣

[@AshrakAhmed]

I think this is the easiest dish you guys have ever made in this channel! Normally I tend to get overwhelm with the number of ingredient that goes into the dishes you make! This one is like, Yes! I can easily get hold of this items and my ham fisted approach to cooking will work for this!

[@livcuteology101]

Made this tonight, so simple but so delicious 😍 I've been so impressed with every recipe I've made on this channel!

[@brettoberry3586]

I'm 49 and we just got a REALLY good cleaver for the first time. It's now my favorite utensil in the kitchen. It's amazing how precise and useful it is to prepare meals like this, where you must cut through bone. Love your science with the heat for the non-stick pan. I've used cast iron for years because that's what my grandmother taught me to use. Cast iron is like comfort food for people who like to cook. I've got pieces that are over 100 years old. The trick is to keep them seasoned well.

[@nadtz]

I recently moved and left my old roommate and his now fiance my cooking stuff, kicking myself for forgetting to take my 1 well used and loved cast iron skillet but I'd feel bad asking for it back now though. Luckily Lodge makes decent 'cheap' ones but the one I had was old as hell that I got and rehabbed from some guy on craigslist like 10 years ago.

[@islandbreeze2102]

It’s super awesome that you filmed the restaurant where you eat this dish. China is such a distant and mysterious place for us westerners who have never been to Asia. The place looked casual and relaxing. Love the chicken recipe. Thank you for sharing!!

[@ElNeroDiablo]

That was an interesting recipe, thanks for sharing both the video of how the restaurant does it and how you replicated it at home. The folks at the restaurant sound like wonderful people, letting you record the dish in the kitchen so you can share it with us and hopefully drum up business for them from folks visiting.

[@红丝绒精]

1 minute into the video and I have to comment: dude, I am 266% sure the restaurant's chef didn't expected you to broadcast their business secrets to the entire world 😂

[@Oldthesis]

Just want to say how much I appreciate the love and attention you give to every recipe you post here. It's very clear that you respect the local history of the food and want to share it to help normalize and humanize what often can be a gateway to xenophobia. Food has the power to unite us and you're doing a great job at exempliying that truth. Thank you.

[@Randomkloud]

this finally clears things up. I live in Malaysia and my hometown has many cantonese people living thre. When my dad was growing up my grandma (we're indian) would make "roast chicken" in the good times. My parents and I would wonder why its called "roast" when it doesn go in an oven. We still make it nowadays and we still call it roasted chicken even though it didnt make sense to us.

[@pigeonboie5899]

Been watching you guys since around 10k, rewatching these videos has really been getting me through quarantine！

[@leeannejohnson1892]

I love the straightforward approach of your channel. Great info!

[@ChrisStargazer]

Awww man, I LOVE the two “30 second frys” once the veg was added...that leaves them nice and crisp, just how I like it. Kudos!

[@Digital-Dan]

What a great benefit it is to experience authentic Cantonese cooking narrated in colloquial American English! Before I try anything these days, I run in and review the basics of stir fry, as taught by the masters here. My previous exposure to Chinese cooking instruction was one using western ingredients taught by an instructor for which English was a second language, although his English was very good. I still have trouble finding "unning" in my local stores, though. Apparently some sort of white, yellow, or reddish root vegetable. :-)

[@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407]

Your doggie!!! I so look forward to seeing him every time you guys upload. He's so adorable!

[@jingizu149]

This looks delicious. Your videos always bring a smile to my face and a rumble to my belly.

[@felix_price]

Loved that Andong cameo! Very nice of you :)

[@shyamdevadas6099]

Great video! That little restaurant you showed reminded me of this little place my Chinese teacher showed me in Kunming. She and her family went there since she was a child. They served only two things - Huntun and KuanMian. Out of all of the food I'd had in China during my time there, what I had there remains my sentimental favorite. You just can't explain this sort of thing to people who have never been there. Thanks again1

[@hoobeydoobey1267]

Mom's fried chicken is kind of the same believe it or not. To her it was standard country cooking. She would bread chicken, fry it in a skillet until both sides were brown, then add a little water, cover, and simmer until cooked. That made a delicious gravy to serve over mashed potatoes.

[@MaltAndPepper]

I made this today - wonderful! I used boneless chicken thighs and a dash of shaoxing wine, and no MSG, otherwise kept to the recipe. Not too 'extreme' tasting but very, very tasty! On the side: Pak choi in oyster sauce and some king oyster mushrooms with a bit of Swiss chicken sauce left over from last weekend (also your recipe, also fabulous!)

[@amarsingh122]

"nice and maillardy" --why are you both so awesome!? great video!

[@mattiec2403]

I made this and it was so good. Reminded me of childhood. Instead of soy sauce, I used Maggi Seasoning, which Chris wrote on Reddit was used by the restaurant chef and could be used to replace the soy sauce. I didn’t want to chop up a chicken, so I used wing flats and drumettes. Since these pieces are larger than the 1.5-inch pieces called for in the recipe, I cut a slit on both sides of each piece to speed up cooking. Worked out well. I’m definitely going to make Fry-Roast Chicken regularly now.

[@wolfingitdown2047]

This looks amazing and simple. Thank you for passing on the knowledge you learned from one of your favorite spots. :D

[@jayyang420]

there are two types of cleavers in the market. The ones with an very thin and almost straight blade tip are called vegetable knives. Those cleavers with thicker blade and more curved blade tips are meat cleavers. You uses vegetable knives for everyday chopping dicing slicing julienning.. you name it. but for chopping bones, you will need a meat cleaver. Otherwise, the blade will be too thin and it will crack.

[@wfhalsey1]

Interesting how they BOTH say "So, right" now. They sure spend a lot of time together 😆

[@yoshioishi105]

Great video! Thanks for the additional insight into the pan & temperature checking. End result looked so tasty!

[@saintju]

Made it today with a cast iron skillet. It was delicious! Thank you for the recipe! Love your channel too. I would love to visit shunde some day to eat all the yummy food!

[@JoeB16v]

I nearly died from laughter at the end... Nothing makes a Miniature Schnauzer more attentive than food, but when that food is frying chicken. You get 100% attention. Relentless.

[@Boozamooz]

Great recipe! This seems super easy compared to some others.

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Ha, definitely. We've been working hard on Lamian so we needed an easy dish or two while testing that :) But it's also nice to have some easier weeknight/homecooking dishes on here too, so that people aren't necessarily jumping into insanely challenging things like Douhuafan, Char Siu Bao, and Lamian haha.

[@Boozamooz]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thank you for what you do! I used to be a singapore-based expat and the lamian in the hawker centers was to-die-for. Can't wait to know how to make it, although knowing me I will never have the time, ingredients, or wherewithall to do so. Great stuff!

[@mattcavoto]

Speaking of Lamian, how good do you think this recipe from Serious Eats is? Greetings from PA! www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2020/04/hand-pulled-lamian-noodles.html

[@zzzzoooo7378]

You both are my fave cooking couple. I've been to Shunde 3 times and the food there is crazy good. Hope for a chance to say hi to you both. Great job and thanks for the high quality videos

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Awesome, hit us up next time you're in town, we can compare restaurant notes haha

[@squirey]

Thanks for the recipe. I made this last night and it was fantastic! Next time I'll try with a bit more cornstarch.

[@dan_zhang]

Great recipe! Tried today and used the leftover schmaltz (5:45) to cook some potatoes. Very good

[@aeon980]

Hey me and my wife met and lived in shunde for 3 years (Da Liang 2016-2019). We live in Ukraine now and are always trying out Chinese recipes because we miss all the variety and flavors. Awesome finding your channel! Would love to get more recipes from you!

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Ah, we're also Daliang based! Shunde's a chill spot, we really like it here.

[@aeon980]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified there's a place called Huang Mama in XingTan that's pretty famous, and is probably my favorite dining experience I had while in China. I would love if you could check that place out and break down some of their recipes, cuz they're fucking dynamite. Their plum wine is pretty insane.

[@anemoneyas]

Based on the directions I've seen, my cast iron will finally be nonstick around the same time I retire.

[@m.a.nelson9427]

Heat your pan on the range to low/med, but evenly warmed. Add two kinds of oil and a equal amount of bee's wax. Heat until liquid and combined. Pour the liquid into a jar for storage. While warm, wipe out as much of the residue as you can. Once dry, let cool. Heat in an oven to 260c, for 1 hour. Repeat 3 - 5 times using the contents of the jar. 5 thin coats gives a very good cooking surface.

[@hoobeydoobey1267]

Look up the Jeff Rogers method. It works. All my CI is super non-stick. Eggs fly out the skillet when I try to get a spatula under them. That's using a thin metal blade spatula, not a thick wood or plastic one.

[@4xdblack]

I bought a bottle of oil and it expired before my cast iron was fully seasoned

[@CMAT17]

差不多 I heard that in my head in my dad's voice. Can confirm, +/- 10 units of anything qualifies as close enough

[@jamespark9628]

190....差不多

[@jamespark9628]

I laughed so hard when i saw it 哈哈哈哈哈哈哈

[@kallebuchholz2156]

I just moved from Changsha to Guangzhou but thanks to the days we living in I couldn’t find my favorite restaurant until now. So instead I’m going to cook that tomorrow. Thanks.

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Swing down to Shunde sometime, 8 minute fast train from Guangzhou South :)

[@kallebuchholz2156]

Chinese Cooking Demystified I’ll come especially if you show me your favorite restaurant.

[@ckadventures4137]

We made this tonight for dinner and it was delicious. I used chicken thighs and did leave the bones on despite some objections. Needless to say every last bit of chicken was eaten. Thanks for the recipes!

[@hikuwai]

Love love love that you have the companion video for this.

[@jackwebb5917]

New sub here, just found your channel. I initially found your egg foo young video and THOROUGHLY enjoyed it! Great job!!!

[@rcradiator]

Great video. More Cantonese food in the future please. It's my favorite regional Chinese cuisine.

[@Nomnomies]

I hope you can make Spinach Seafood Soup (spinach were pureed and the soup includes shrimp, scallops, rice vermicelli, tofu, egg and made in a thick consistency) I can’t find recipes on it. It is usually available in Chinese Restaurants. Thank you 💖 It’s my favorite go-to soup.

[@wlack2]

Just tried it and it was really good - definitely going to be part of the meal rotation - I used skinless thighs, but I imagine with skin and bone more of an atavistic experience.... thanks and can you do some more aubergine dishes please!

[@Trailtraveller]

Do not forget me -- giving the paw to make sure (love dogs) LOL

[@dspserpico]

Busting the myths about teflon as well as MSG. Bravo!

[@joelbrittain6379]

I've made this dish a number of times and its outstanding. My "variation" (which isn't much of a variation) is that I just hack up some bone-in skin-on chicken thighs. Great dinner then a couple of decent lunches.

[@baconenjoyer]

i tell ya 'hwat' - this was fantastic. even with the first time trying, it wasn't perfect but the flavor and technique surprised my wife (she thought 'oh this is too simple') we're making this again, and we will make it better than the first time, which was still a solid 9/10.

[@ebwrigh]

With the whole thing about the teflon pan, in my experience a standard western-style stainless steel pan would work just fine. I cook skin-on chicken thighs in a similar manner all the time without sticking.

[@jammycooks]

Love that serving plate. Where did you get it? (can I get it stateside)

[@tbdlater5690]

I made this tonight. It was great and well received by all.

[@Lewis.Alcindor]

Can you do more Shunde dishes and/or go into its history and its typical characteristics? I'm not very familiar with the cuisine, and only consciously had it for the first time at a restaurant in Guangzhou this past December. My parents noted that Shunde was known as the "best" or "most notable" of all the Guangdong region cuisines.

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

We're definitely planning on doing some distinctive Shunde dishes! Many of the utmost classics though are *very* difficult and labor intensive though. Like... for example one very famous Shunde dish is to remove the bones and meat from a whole fish (a very small boney one at that), chop that into a paste, then stuff it back into the still-intact fish skin. Basically... a lot of the chefs for the old Cantonese merchant families came from Shunde for whatever reason, so it has this unique tradition that ends up reflected in the cuisine. We did do stuffed chilis though, which're a (easier) Shunde classic!

[@Lewis.Alcindor]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified Ja, that sounds VERY labor intensive! Are stuffed chilis the ones stuffed with the fish paste? Those are often sold at Cantonese restaurants and stores here in NYC. I didn't know that that was a Shunde dish, but I guess a decent part of Shunde cuisine is stuffing things and cooking it.

[@adorabell4253]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified That just sounds like traditional gefilte fish. Annoying but very doable. I'm guessing the Shunde one tastes better. I used to get fed it at events like my grandma's birthday and her family are not good cooks.

[@JimmyKip]

Ahh! Thanks for the mythbusting on pan temperatures :) Its like people forget that stuff goes in a pan & cools it down during cooking!

[@nadtz]

Yay, a recipe I don't have to do any shopping for, I know what i'm making for dinner tonight.

[@shanemaniram7641]

This was a super good recipe. Really tasty chicken

[@Snoopy101a]

I'm watching this at 0018, and now I'm hungry as hell. Thanks.

[@vincent3596]

I am a Cantonese. Don’t think it is a proper Cantonese dish as Cantonese people don’t normally cook their chicken like that. But it does look quite delicious and easy to make. Will probably give it a try sometime. Thanks for the recipe.

[@alexhe7512]

Probabaly the most persuasive Teflon commercial to date^^

[@vicentefonseca9868]

I loveee ur recipes but there arent any asian supermarkets near where I live so I have to be mindful about what ingredients I order online (bc $$$) so I loved this ingredient list and will be trying out different variations

[@guangzhongchen2739]

Seeing you scrape that non-stick pan with a metal spatula breaks my heart, but good jobs on the recipes.

[@alanhirsch4632]

Love the channel. I'm wondering if you would adjust the marinade amounts if you were using boneless chicken...

[@keithengle592]

Recipe request: American Chinese restaurants have a dish thats's usually called something like cold noodles with sesame sauce, and I've always been a fan. Do you know if that's based on an actual Chinese dish, and if it is, can you give it your treatment? Thanks!

[@galecarp]

It is called "Shanghai Cold Noodle上海冷面". But with peanut and sesame paste. Complex Version: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5nSmp6EnZeEfqs Simplified Version: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqSmp4elhMd2f9E

[@reebeegee]

would you guys ever write a cookbook??

[@davidlitzelswope6670]

Did he say "maillard-y"? 😂

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Haha there's only so many ways to say "brown", so... :)

[@uasj2]

Describes it so well. “Browned” just doesn’t do the job.

[@lilithgrrrl]

Wonder if you can use a stainless steel skillet instead of nonstick or would the chicken stick to the pan since you’re not using too much oil?

[@MikeBachful]

Do you use refined or unrefined peanut oil for this? Thanks

[@koruki]

A little outs of scope but you can sand that rough cast iron to have a better surface for building up seasoning

[@rhosymedra6628]

Looks good but its so heavy on the meat! Not very many veggies in these dishes. Are there vegetable dishes, or is it just not popular to eat many veggies?

[@d.lawrencemiller5755]

Hey Steph doesn't your dad or uncle make barbecued meat? I thought I remembered that from another video. If I remember correctly, I would love to see more of that.

[@eduardochavacano]

are those chicken bony because they are native chicken? they have that in Guanxi. but perhaps it was a cantonese restaurant.

[@delyar]

I love the western super market club!

[@hoobeydoobey1267]

to season your CI, heat to 200*F/93*C for 20 minutes in an oven to open the metal's pores. Wipe with oil (any kind, but vegetable (soybean works great!). Take another paper towel and wipe it all off. Place CI back into oven, upside down and turn heat up past the oils smoke point. I usually go to 420*F/215*C or a bit higher. Let it go for 2 hours, shut the oven off, and leave the pan inside for the many hours until the oven has cooled. Remove and repeat 2 more times . I season in the winter months. Do that and you'll have a seriously good seasoned pan. It's such a good seasoning you can wash the skillet in soap and water and not lose the slipperiness.

[@hoobeydoobey1267]

theculinaryfanatic.com/cast-iron-restoration-maintenance/jeff-rogers-cast-iron-seasoning-method/ You'll note Jeff does another wipe down after the first one. I used to do that, but found it was unnecessary if you do a good wipe down the first time. Try it his way first.

[@Hannahgs]

Not sure if y’all have answered this before but do y’all cook outside for filming reasons or for ventilation reasons? I really want to follow y’all’s recipes but I’m worried I’m gonna smoke up the whole apartment cause my stove fan is pretty sub par. I do have a balcony though

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

For filming reasons. We originally filmed outside because our first videos were on an iPhone 4 lol (and that doesn't play well with dark places). After we got the DSLR we stuck with it because hey, cooking outside feels good.

[@damian_smith]

This looks delicious! There's a restaurant in Cambridge UK that served me a similar looking dish, but where the chicken was flavoured with Sichuan numbing peppers (is it Faa Dziu?) How generous of your place to share their recipe.

[@min_nari]

probably 辣子雞，laziji

[@IAmTheUltimateRuler]

what's the restaurant? I'm in that area and I'd love to check it out when the Current Situation passes

[@红丝绒精]

yes. the numbing sensation is from Sichuan pepper corns.

[@damian_smith]

I think it was Mr Ho on Mill Road And pretty sure the dish was this 辣子雞丁〔--鸡-〕 làzi jīdīng diced chicken with chilli

[@mlovecraftr]

Question: You have mentioned that you are not fluent in Cantonese, how do you interact with locals in Guangdong? Do you directly address them in Mandarin? How do most Cantonese speakers seem to feel about it? Asking as an student who wants to travel to China.

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

In mainland China? There's a lot of people here from other provinces that also speak Mandarin - even in a super Cantonese city like Shunde, probably... 15% of people are Mandarin speakers? Basically, it's very normal for someone to interact with you in Mandarin, but then go back to talking with their friend or co-worker in Cantonese. Which honestly for me makes it a little bit difficult to find the drive to learn the language... because you never truly *need* it. Cantonese people are too worldly and polite lol, imo they gotta learn a bit of that French "fuck you, at least try to learn my language" attitude ;) In Hong Kong... even though most people can listen and understand Mandarin (even if they can't always speak it so well), I always lead with English then swap to Mandarin only if there's any communication issues.

[@mlovecraftr]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified 谢谢！It's very fascinating to know about how life is in a multilingual society.

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

​@@mlovecraftr Yeah I think the ol "Language is a Dialect with an army" phenomenon kind of hides how multilingual people are here. Like, I remember back when I was doing some ESL teaching, there was one student that said that her English was bad because 'she was bad at learning foreign languages'. Left me scratching my head a bit... because here you had someone from Hunan (mother tongue: Hunanese) that knew Mandarin *and* also Cantonese fluently... all three of which are mutually unintelligible. It'd be like someone from the UK that knew fluent French and Polish saying how they were 'bad with language' because they were having trouble with Japanese.

[@IAmTheUltimateRuler]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified I know what you mean. I'm from the UK and I went to the Netherlands to study, fully intending to learn as much Dutch as I could. Only it turns out that the stereotype of all Dutch people speaking great english is pretty much true, which makes it..... difficult to find the motivation to learn.

[@patavinity1262]

You've probably addressed this already, and I know I've eaten them in Chinese restaurants, but what exactly do mild chilli peppers taste like? How do they differ from hot peppers (apart from being milder obviously) and bell/capsicum peppers?

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

There's two sorts of mild chilis here, which most confusingly go by the same name at the market. There's the ones I use in the video (which're a bit smoother/smaller/darker in color) and... anaheims. The taste is more or less identical. So whenever there's a 'green mild chili' in the recipe... just use anaheims! The 'red mild chilis' are simply those chilis ripened. Lots of times the combination of the two is used mostly for color. If you don't care about color, you could use all Anaheim; if you do, you could either ripen one or swap out the red for red bell.

[@patavinity1262]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified OK, thanks.

[@mbax9qx2]

用这个方法炮制了鸡胸肉和龙利鱼，味道都不错！感谢分享

[@alfredlow6720]

Tried it with pork ribs and the kids loved it! Thanks 👍

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Damn that was fast! Glad you liked it :)

[@really9781]

Can I skip the chili oil? Want to cook for my toddler as well

[@chrislrob]

I've watched a lot of your videos but it was only today that it occurred to me what a good job you are doing. Thanks.

[@justinwuu]

OMG you guys moved to Shunde? My hometown

[@penguinpingu3807]

Temperature is not scary for the non-stick. But using metal on it is.

[@rachstrobe898]

Great video as always! I do have an unrelated question, thought. A few weeks ago I tried to buy ya cai (芽菜) for Dan Dan noodles, but I misread the label on the can and ended up with zha cai (榨菜). Steph and Chris, do you have any good recipes for zha cai? Thank you!

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Marinate some pork slivers with the standard marinate (sugar, salt, liaojiu, soy sauce, cornstarch, and coat it with a touch oil at the end), quickly fry the pork slivers, add in some hot water (enough to make a soup), let it boil on high for 5 minutes, add in some reconstituted glass noodles (cook for half a minute), toss in some zha cai at the end, season the soup with a touch salt, sugar, white pepper, and optionally some MSG, sprinkle on some sliced scallion greens, then you'll have the classic zhacai and pork sliver soup. Zhacai is also good in stir fry with pork slivers too~ Basically you did above (minus the water and glass noodle part), and you'll have a nice stir fry.

[@rachstrobe898]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified wow, this sounds delicious! Unfortunately my area is under a pork shortage right now, but I'll have to try it once all the stores are restocked. Thank you!!!

[@totobogos]

Salivating at the simple thought of living in Shunde... Such awesome restaurants and cuisine around! By curiosity (and if you feel comfortable sharing), what do you do professionally in the Shunde/Foshan/Guangzhou area?

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

These days, this :) Before that, I was a math teacher and Steph was a translator

[@totobogos]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified Awesome to hear the efforts and great work of you and Steph on this channel are paying off (and now I have an idea why as a fellow math/CS person I appreciated your thoroughness so much haha)! Trying out new recipes certainly makes quarantine here in Canada more enjoyable. Keep up the good work and stay safe!

[@PamirTea]

Thank you for this recipe

[@lozoft9]

Avoid the whole nonstick vs cast iron argument and get a ceramic pan. It's more expensive than either, but it's both easier to clean like nonstick and has no max temp like cast iron. Also lasts much longer so the money you spend is well worth it.

[@benporter2059]

i kinda think you should make merch like all these other channels. Tees that say "so right"

[@PlaguePriest88]

great video! what kind of dog is that, it looks very cute

[@RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS77]

Two words, friend; stainless steel

[@clintow]

your schnauzer is SO CUTE

[@toddstropicals]

Easy enough dish, sounds good!

[@christfollower122491]

Awesome I am going to have to make this on the wok. Will let you know how it goes :)

[@arvidrehn3289]

wait, in the other video they use Maggi sauce. I would not skip that if you can get your hands on some. tastes great.

[@SanchezOKelly]

So what kind of cleaver do you find that can do bone like that? in my experience the blades I've found even on high end cleavers are too brittle for bone.

[@sckenzy6260]

Price has no bearing on this. There are two types of Chinese cleavers: Slicers and Boners(ok that was a bad translation on my part lol). The slicers are the typical thin cleavers you see on amazon, fancy brands like Shun also make them. They are good for slicing meat and veg, but can't cut bone worth a damn. On the other hand, bone cleavers are thicker, heavier, and sometimes have a hole at the end. They are made for cutting through bone, and Chinese butchers use these exclusively. You need to use "tree trunk" style cutting boards with them or they might cleave your typical household plastic cutting board in half. If you really want a bone cleaver, on amazon search "heavy duty cleaver shi ba zi zuo", there's a $46 one. "shi ba zi" is a famous cleaver brand in China. Deng Jia is also another good brand, and their bone cleaver goes for $34.

[@jong2359]

Stay away from boutique cleavers, and order one from a forge or at least get a properly heat treated high-carbon steel (read as NOT stainless) cleaver. There is no such thing as high-carbon stainless... accept no substitutes.

[@bluesoverlord]

Get an F. Dick bone cleaver for chicken or ribs. The 2.5 pound one is kinda heavy for some people, but I like it because it doesn’t look twice at chicken or ribs before it’s through. Use a thick wood cutting board. I have a 4 pound cleaver too, but honestly, it’s too heavy....but it has become a good conversation starter. To be fair it’s good for when you have a whole veal carcass you need to split. These bone cleavers aren’t meant to be razor sharp, they generally are thicker with a convex grind so they won’t chip. You then change up to the thinner, lighter vegetable cleaver for everything else. The rounded end on the spine is really good for pounding meat too.