Ginger Chicken in Cooking Wine Soup (Ayam Arak)

I bet a lot of you know this dish. It has been a tradition in the Chinese family to cook a Ginger Chicken in Cooking Wine Soup (Ayam Arak). You will actually see this type of dish after a woman gives birth. The Chinese tradition believes that a woman’s body who just gives birth losses lots of blood and therefore the body is consider cold (Yin). To balance the body temperature to hot (Yang), the woman will have to eat this type of dish. It is also known to help the production of breast milk. If you like to try this type of dish as well after your give labor, be sure to research around for pro and cons.

I personally just like this dish and enjoyed eating this everyday for 40 days after I gave labor to Andrew. My mom would wake up very early in the morning to cook many traditional Chinese dishes and bring it over to my house. Thanks a lot, Mom. I will never forget what you have done for me. My older sister, Nat, is another fans of this dish. Here you go, sis, you can try this recipe. Although it is not as good as our mom’s, at least you can eat ‘Ayam Arak’. Hehehehe. By the way, I always use chicken thigh because that’s what we like, you can always substitute with white meat if you like.

INGREDIENTS:

2 pieces of chicken thighs (I only took the meat, because, I like to use the bone to cook chicken broth) - cut into medium cubes

2 teaspoons of ginger - cut into small matches size

2 tablespoons of sesame oil

1/2 cup of sweet cooking rice wine

INSTRUCTIONS:

Heat up a pan in a high heat, put in the sesame oil, then stir fry the ginger until it turns golden, then put in the chicken and stir fry until cook. Turn the heat to medium, then pour in the sweet cooking rice wine and wait until boils. It is ready to serve. Oh, usually my mom would serve it with a certain kind of salt, that I couldn’t find here. Enjoy!