This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please visit the disclosures and privacy policy page.
Aug 24, 2016

Vinegar Glazed Chicken | Wok Wednesdays

This vinegar glazed chicken is, according to Grace Young, a typical Hunan family style stir-fry. Grace simplifies the recipe by using crushed red pepper instead of dried chilies. 

This vinegar glazed chicken is a typical Hunan family style stir-fry.

One of the key ingredients in this Vinegar Glazed Chicken is Chinkiang vinegar, made from fermented rice. It's dark colored, and fairly mild and slightly sweet. If you can't find it, balsamic vinegar is a great substitute.

In addition to the vinegar, this stir-fried vinegar glazed chicken has 14 other ingredients, including two kinds of soy sauce, Shao Hsing rice wine, ground Sichuan peppercorns, sesame oil, minced garlic, and minced ginger. Lots of minced garlic and ginger!

While I love the flavor minced ginger adds to these Wok Wednesdays dishes, this recipe called for a whole tablespoon. Fortunately, I had just received this new cool tool, a Deiss citrus zester and cheese graterI decided to try it out for mincing the ginger. Boom. I had a tablespoon in less than a minute. Honestly, with my knife skills, this would have taken me quite a bit longer, and I would have ended up with chunks of ginger, not a fine mince. (Disclosure: I received this zester from Deiss with no strings attached. This is not a sponsored post. I just really like this gadget.)

This vinegar glazed chicken is a typical Hunan family style stir-fry.

The resulting flavor of this vinegar glazed chicken is so rich and complex! I gave some to my 12 year old grandson, along with some sticky rice, and he declared it "delicious!" Such praise like that makes my day!

Once again, I need to learn the difference between slice versus dice. There is no photo of the dish in the book, so when Grace writes "cut into 1/4 inch thick bite-sized slices," my brain sees "cut into 1/4 inch thick bite-sized pieces." Of course, that is nearly impossible, so I cut my chicken into 1/2 inch chunks and hoped for the best. It was only after seeing this interpretation of the recipe (which does not include the essential dark soy sauce, and uses less garlic and ginger) that I realized I could have thinly "sliced" the chicken. Doh!

The recipe can be found on page 136 of Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge. If I haven't convinced you to buy the book yet, be sure to check it out from the library. I'm pretty sure you'll want to own a copy after reading the wonderful stories and recipes.

Wok Wednesdays members have been stir frying their way through Grace Young's wonderful book Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge. Guess what? We only have once recipe left, broccoli beef, and we will have made every recipe in the book. That's pretty incredible.

Fortunately, the party is not over. Our new project will be exploring new techniques with Grace's book, The Breath of a Wok. See the Wok Wednesdays site for more details, and Grace's site for details about winning an autographed copy of the book. You do not need to be a blogger to join in. In fact, 99.9 percent of the participants are not bloggers.

Would you like to comment?

  1. You've outdone yourself Karen! Your food styling and food photography are outstanding. Thanks for adding the scallions as a garnish. The dark chicken sure needs it. And it doesn't matter if you dice or slice the chicken. As long as they're more or less uniformly cut so they cook evenly that's all that matters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Grace! I had one scallion left and decided to use it as garnish. It was delicious!

      Delete
  2. You think my boss will be okay with "I have a wok emergency" as my excuse for being late? Because I think I need to make this NOW. You made this look as beautiful as it sounds, Karen.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This photo is positively mouthwatering!! My son will be home from college for a week and a dish like this has his name all over it. Beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks good but there isn'the a recipe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Mary. I'm not permitted by the author to publish the recipe. If you google it along with the name Grace Young, you should be able to find a couple of posts. I encourage you to check the book out at the library. There are so many good recipes and lessons!

      Delete
  5. I ordered her cookbook. You will have to wait for a phone call from my beloved husband, and then you can explain to him why I needed it.

    (sigh, sigh, sigh)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol!! Which one? Breath or Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge? If you got the latter, fix him the ginger tomato beef and he will call me to thank me!!

      Delete
    2. Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge.... ginger tomato beef sounds great too... I think it will arrive on Tuesday, so I better be on my best behavior this weekend. Frugal shall be my middle name
      ;-)

      Delete
    3. Phil will LOVE the recipes! And the stories about the dishes in the book are wonderful too.

      Delete
  6. I wasn't clear on the instructions for cutting of the chicken either, then I saw Grace's photo, and thought hers looked huge, so I just sliced the legs in quarter-inch slices and cut the longer ones in half. No matter how we cut it, it really is a most beautiful stir-fry. Especially with your scallion garnish! I just love your photo . . .

    ReplyDelete
  7. This recipe shows you how to make mouthwatering chicken drumsticks and thighs that are slathered with a tangy glaze. I bet you'll make this recipe a lot once you've tasted how good this is.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Chicken is a great ingredient when you want to make dinner in a hurry because it cooks quickly. Like most ingredients, the smaller you cut it up the faster the pieces cook. Protein

    ReplyDelete

I would love to hear from you! If you comment anonymously, be sure to leave your name in your comment.