This fun and easy recipe for sake steamed chicken with ginger and scallions creates amazingly tender and flavorful chicken! A great spin on chicken dinner.
There is something about recipes that involve shredded chicken that draw me like a moth to a flame.
Shredded chicken = comfort food in my book, and even things that sound a little outside my general area of expertise are too tempting to give up if the words “chicken” and “shred” are part of the equation.
Which is how I recently found myself in the sake section of our local liquor store, squinting at labels and pretending like I knew one sake from another.
I finally picked one at random and brought it home, and then realized that I didn’t see the actual word “sake” anywhere on the label. Anywhere. Um.
This recipe sounds all exotic and all, but it basically comes down to steaming some chicken breasts in the sake until it is – I kid you not – the most tender, succulent chicken you have ever tasted in your life.
You take this completely perfect chicken, shred it (yes!!) and toss with a sauce made of ginger, soy sauce, orange juice, sherry, rice vinegar and a few other fabulous things.
Pour it over some brown rice and scatter some scallions and sesame seeds on top. Which brings me to the other best part of this story. The recipe calls for “sesame seeds, preferably black.”
Black sesame seeds?
So I call my mom, and it goes like this:
Me: “Hi Mom. You don’t have any black sesame seeds by any chance, do you?”
Mom: “Of course I do. How much do you need?”
Of course she did.
So if you (like me) get wildly excited by utterly tender shredded chicken…and have access to sesame seeds of any kind, and are not intimidated by the sake section of your liquor store, I promise that this is a recipe that will make your heart sing.
Sake Steamed Chicken with Ginger and Scallions
This fun and easy recipe for sake steamed chicken with ginger and scallions creates amazingly tender and flavorful chicken! A great spin on chicken dinner.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Asian
Ingredients
- 1 3 1/2 pound chicken, rinsed and patted dry
- 1 1/2 cups sake
- Sea salt
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sherry
- 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 3 thinly sliced scallions
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, preferably black but any kind will do
Instructions
- Place a steamer basket in the bottom of a large stockpot. If you don’t have an official steamer basket, a metal colander will work fine. Pour in equal amounts of sake and water, enough to reach the bottom of the steamer basket. Bring to a boil.
- Generously salt the chicken inside and out; set breast side up in the steamer basket. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Steam the chicken until done through, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Turn off the heat and allow to cool for about 20 minutes.
- Whisk together the soy sauce, orange juice, rice vinegar, lemon juice, mirin, ginger and garlic.
- Remove the chicken from the pot and place on a large cutting board and shred into bite-sized pieces.
- Spoon some of the sauce over the chicken and sprinkle with scallions and sesame seeds. Serve extra sauce on the side for dipping.
Notes
We like this chicken not only with regular rice but with cauliflower rice too!
Maria says
Is this recipe for a skin-on or skin-off chicken?
Hi Maria and we use skinless chicken for this recipe. :)
Charlie says
Kate:
Just finished this for supper. I had it with edamame tossed with butter and five-spice powder.
Very nice and tender.
I decided to do it in the air-fryer. Brought Saki and water to boil at 390 in the bottom. Put the chicken on the rack. Turned it down to 360 and steamed for 20 minutes. The bonus was the skin was crispy. Meat was very tender and tasty. Perfect.
Thanks for the recipe.
Wow, the air fryer! That was a great move on your part – glad it came out so well – and edamame is the PERFECT side dish for this! :)
Charlie says
Kate: I will only be doing one piece of chicken. Will it still take 1 to 1 1/2 hours?
Hi Charlie! I haven’t tried it with just one piece, but it shouldn’t take as long! If you have an instant read thermometer I would test it after 45 minutes – you are looking for an internal temperature of 165. I hope this helps! :)
Charlie says
Thanks, Kate :~D
FramedCooks says
Thanks everyone – I know you will love it, it's the most tender chicken I've EVER made. And Aki, thank you so much for the translation…phew! :)
Aki says
Hi, I'm new to viewing your blog but I can help you with the sake part on your bottle! It's on there but it's in Japan and not translated into English on the bottle. The top little sticker with the single Chinese character? ้ = sake! And this recipe looks delicious, I could actually make that here in Japan!
K Blue says
This totally sounds like my kind of comfort food. Adding it to my list!
Rivki Locker (Ordinary Blogger) says
what a great technique. That totally looks like sake to me (not that I'm expert, but the bottle I have at home looks a lot like that one!).
Joanne says
The sake section is totally a scary place. I'm convinced there are ninjas back there waiting for you to make a wrong choice.
Obviously, you made the right one since you lived to tell the tale. This looks awesome!
JuLo says
This sounds fantastic! I've never steamed chicken before, but I buy frier chickens like every other week. Definitely trying this after Thanksgiving. :)
Michelle says
I have to agree with what Vanilla Sugar said….You are fabulous.So is your Mum..Making next week :)
vanillasugarblog says
girl you are fabulous.
have i ever steamed with sake? no.
do i want too?
oh heavens yes.
thank you thank you for this.