I remember Donna Hay saying on the first Masterchef series that taking photos of brown food was hard.
Writing a recipe for this dish was also hard, because I never follow one, but I made an effort to keep track last time, so that I could at least offer you a rough guide. Please treat it as such, and change whatever you feel like to make the dish your own.
- 6 chicken thigh fillets, cut into chunks
- 20 cooked peeled chestnuts, or tinned chestnuts
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
- small knob ginger, peeled and chopped or julienned
- 3 tablespoons dark sweet soy
- 1½ tablespoon light soy or Teriyaki sauce
- ground pepper
- 1 – 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- vegetable oil, for frying
- 4 – 5 cups cooked rice, hot
Note: I used a ceramic Chinese soup spoon as a measure – each holds 20ml, which is the equivalent of an Aussie tablespoon.
1. In a large bowl, combine the thigh fillets, dark soy, light soy and sesame oil. Season with ground pepper.
2. In a wok or large skillet, heat the vegetable oil and fry the garlic and ginger briefly. Add the chicken, all the marinade and the cooked chestnuts. Cook, stirring, until the chicken is cooked through, the chestnuts are soft and the sauce has thickened slightly – add a little water if it gets too dry during the cooking time.
3. Have the hot rice in a microwave proof container with a lid. Pour the chicken, chestnuts and all the sauce over the rice and stir to combine. Pop the whole thing into the microwave for a couple of minutes to warm through before serving.
I don’t put onions in this dish simply because my mother never did. Then again, she never put chestnuts in it either, and is quite appalled whenever I do. And now that I think more about it, I believe she used chicken wings instead of fillets.
Despite all that, I find this dish homely, comforting and reminiscent of my childhood. As I said, please feel free to change it up however you wish – rice and meat dishes like this are incredibly satisfying in all permutations!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
should be soooo delicioussss :) You are amazing dear Celia, Thanks and Love, nia
Thanks Nia! xx
Oh, MY! I cannot believe Donna Hay said that! I say that all the time to PHil, and really, it is soooo true! I feel in good company now, with Donna and you!
brownies, chocolate cake, ribs, chili, chocolate mousse, I don’t care what it is, brown food is very tricky to take a picture.
back to cooking: your recipe made my mouth water, and it’s only 9am here
Morning darling! Yep, Donna really said that.. ;-)
I love these kind of recipes! Most of my favorite dishes have that warning of no real recipe- just a manner of cooking from memory and palate. I’m going to add yours to my repetoirre!
Heidi, it’s funny how dishes evolve – I was sure my mother made this, until I sat back and really thought about it and realised that it was quite different to her dish now. Hope you evolve this into something you really like! :)
This sounds absolutely delicious and your pic is very appealing too! *listens to tummy rumbles*
Thanks Sue! :)
As soon as the temperature drops below 31C, I’m going to make this. Cooking is off the agenda for a little while. Can’t cope with kitchen heat in this heat. (faint). This looks totally delish!
Misk, that does sound hot! I don’t think I’d be turning on the oven either in those temps. Hope you find a way to stay cool!
Spent an hour in the dentist’s chair yesterday. At least he has air-conditioning. ;)
We collect so many chestnuts year during the season but I seldom every cook with them. Your recipe would be a great way for me to actually make use of them! Thanks.
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy it – I would love to be able to collect chestnuts! :)
Brown is very HARD to get to pose nicely. You’ve done well Celia, this looks yummo. I was trying to do cooked up mushrooms last week- they certainly weren’t helping themselves.
Brydie, mushrooms are tricky – they barely look good in real life, let alone on the screen. Which is ironic, as they’re one of the most delicious things to eat ever!
How very delicious, Celia. Tell me, do you home deliver?
Yes, but not to Canberra, I’m afraid. Any time you want to pick up, just let me know.. ;-)
Brown is nigh on impossible Celia!
I quite like to make my mother appalled at times, unfortunately it happens way too often accidentally to get as much satisfaction when I do it purposely :(
Darling, it’s a bit like that sometimes, isn’t it? ;-)
I’m going to have to be adventurous and try cooking with chestnuts. I’ve seen them in so many recipes already. You’re right brown is hard but you’ve done a great job!
Thanks Claire! Look forward to seeing what you do with chestnuts, I’m sure it will be something very creative! :)
your chestnut and chicken dish is very photogenic and it looks delicious..i love chestnuts so i need to get creative like you celia..x
Thanks Jane! It is really delicious – one of my favourite dishes!
Brown or not, I could eat that photo. If there was one thing I would change about the G.O., it would be that he would eat rice. Sadly, not even such a gorgeous dish as this would do it. I might experiment with noodles, which are now sort of G.O. “acceptable” and see how it goes :)
Your other half doesn’t eat rice? Hehehe…he’d never survive my extended Chinese family.. ;-)
Hard to believe huh? He will eat “sweet rice” like rice pudding… In 20+ years I have seen him eat it once, unwittingly in the middle of a [preassembed] fajita. I’m not sure what it was doing there myself. It’s a good thing in some ways as we don’t have it at home which helps reduce my carb intake :)
Yep, I guess that would help with the carb intake. We probably eat far too much rice! :)
Haha I find recipe writing hard too. You dont know how much you have put in by the time you add and then taste and then add some more. Good job :)
Thanks Nic. :)
This looks so delicious Celia and don’t worry about it being brown! I remember that quote too. I think this would be very delicious – I’m a big fan of chestnuts at the moment. We had rolled loin of pork with chestnuts on Sunday – very yummy. I’ll give this a try and hope to do your recipe (or your mother’s altered recipe) justice xx
Oooh, Charlie, pork with chestnuts sounds wonderful. My friend Maude always does roasted duck with chestnuts…
Dear Celia,
Brown or otherwise, I think this dish looks great and I would imagine the chestnuts taking up all the chicken flavours. A similar dish that I love with chicken, whole garlic cloves and ginger is the Malaysian style “lo kai” which needs a good dash of brandy or cognac.
Two nights ago, I was watching Donna Hay prepare her version of Chinese chicken rice in a pot. At the end, her dish looked like an anemic Hainanese chicken rice. Now, that was really hard to watch.
Chopinand, you really need to stop watching Masterchef, I’m sure it’s not good for your blood pressure. :)
I think my mum’s original dish was her take on lo kai, and I love the idea of brandy. Mum used to always add that to her sesame oil chicken as well.
Sorry Celia – this is a silly question but do you mean those tinned water chestnuts? We ate a lot of those growing up – just brought back memories!
Alex, not water chestnuts, although my mum would probably be happier if I used those! These are the regular ones that you have to roast/boil and peel first. I wrote about peeling them here:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2012/07/06/roasting-chestnuts/
This sounds so lovely. Chestnuts are beautiful although I never really get time to cook them. Really nice to see them with Asian flavours though
http://www.mykitchenstories.com.au
Tania, since I figured out a way to roast them, I cooked up a large batch and froze them for future use. Seems to be working well so far! :)
Hehe you know maybe I’m weird but brown food isn’t that hard to photograph, I find white food difficult though or black and white stuff together.
Lorraine, that’s interesting! I have no problem taking photos of bread, but brown or anything darker is hard work. Must be that amazing camera you have!
Yum, brown food ;) It looks rich and delicious ! And I think you did a great job of capturing the recipe, as you say brown food is hard to photograph!
Thanks Claire. It really is hard to photograph!
Oh… the chestnut looks so good! It’s been a while I had a handful of these :)
Thanks Tes! I adore chestnuts, and I finally found a way to peel them easily, so I’ve been eating lots of them this year! :)
Brown food can be a bear to photograph well. This looks really good. I will admit that I will put an onion in anything I think I can get away with. :)
Maureen, I really tried with this one, but my mother was adamant the flavour of the sesame oil and the onions wouldn’t work here. I’m too scared to argue with her on that one.. :)
Your recipe sounds very good. If I’m not making a dish for my blog and cooking one of my tried and true dishes, I never measure. I think most of us are like that. And you are right…a brown meal is hard to photograph.
Karen, savoury dishes in particular we tend to just make by feel. As I was making this, I was thinking about all how there are rice and meat dishes in so many cultures – paella, risotto, biryani. It’s a combination that obviously just works! :)
I totally agree. I just made paella and when I post the recipe it will be much like yours with what you do and approximate amounts.
Waw! What a wonderful meal! I love chicken with chestnuts: so much flavour in here! :) I love your brown picture! You did well! :)
Thanks Sophie! xx
really nice to come back from holidays to so many scrumptious posts. yes, please, anything with chestnuts! the brown picture came out pretty neat too :)
Thank you! I’m the same – anything with chestnuts, please! :)
You did good Celia. I have to make this dish…love the chestnuts.
Thanks Norma! I adore chestnuts..
This dish is incredible, Celia! Yes, brown food may not photograph well but who cares? When all is said and done, it’s the taste that really matters. And this recipe sounds delicious! I must give this a try.