Main Chinese restaurant-style Chinese Nut-free
Breaded Almond Chicken
A prairie Chinese-Canadian dish of breaded fried chicken sliced over shredded lettuce, blanketed in a dark savoury gravy and scattered with toasted almonds. It looks like a schnitzel that wandered into a Chinese kitchen, which is roughly what happened, and the lettuce underneath is not garnish, since it wilts slightly under the hot gravy and is the thing that keeps the plate from being uniformly heavy.
Christoph's version of the prairie Chinese-Canadian restaurant dish, breaded cutlets sliced over shredded lettuce with a dark soy gravy and toasted almonds.
Ingredients
Written for a 4 L pot
Units
Temperature
Servings
Chicken and breading
- 700 g chicken breast, butterflied and flattened to about 1.5 cm rounded
- 22 ml light soy sauce rounded
- 15 ml Shaoxing wine rounded
- 2 g ground white pepper rounded
- 80 g plain flour rounded
- 2 eggs, beaten rounded
- 150 g fine dry breadcrumbs rounded
- 800 ml neutral oil, for shallow frying rounded
Gravy
- 500 ml chicken stock rounded
- 30 ml light soy sauce rounded
- 15 ml dark soy sauce rounded
- 22 ml oyster sauce rounded
- 10 g sugar rounded
- 22 g cornflour, slaked in a little cold water rounded
- 5 ml toasted sesame oil rounded
- 1 g ground white pepper rounded
To serve
- 200 g iceberg lettuce, finely shredded rounded
- 80 g flaked almonds, toasted rounded
- 2 scallions, finely sliced rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Season the chicken. Butterfly the breasts and flatten them to an even 1.5 cm, then toss with the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and white pepper. Leave 20 minutes. Even thickness matters more than any other prep step here, because a cutlet that is 3 cm at one end will be dry at the thin end by the time the thick end is done.
- Toast the almonds in a dry pan for 2 to 3 minutes until pale gold, then tip them out immediately.
- Make the gravy and keep it warm. Bring the stock, both soy sauces, oyster sauce, sugar and white pepper to a simmer. Stir the slaked cornflour and pour it in, stirring, and cook 1 minute until glossy. Stir in the sesame oil off the heat. It thickens as it stands, so loosen with stock later if needed.
- Bread in three stages. Pat each cutlet dry, then flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, pressing the crumbs on firmly. Let them sit 10 minutes before frying so the coating sets and does not slide off in the oil.
- Shallow fry at 175°C, two cutlets at a time, about 3 to 4 minutes a side until deep golden and 74°C inside. Drain on a rack rather than paper.
- Rest 5 minutes, then slice across into thick fingers.
- Build the plate. Shredded lettuce on the base, sliced chicken over it, hot gravy poured across the middle so some crumb stays exposed, then almonds and scallions. Serve with rice.
Notes
- This is a prairie dish, not a Cantonese one. Breaded almond chicken, sometimes called almond boneless chicken or war su gai, grew up in Chinese-Canadian and American Midwest restaurants, where a breaded cutlet was familiar to local diners. It is delicious and it is regional, and worth naming honestly.
- The lettuce is structural. It wilts under the gravy into something between salad and vegetable, and it cuts the richness of fried chicken under a soy gravy. Do not skip it.
- Pour the gravy in a stripe, not all over. Part of the pleasure is that some of the crumb is still crisp when it reaches the table.
- Rest before slicing. Slicing straight from the pan pushes the juices out and softens the crumb from the inside.
- Gravy keeps 4 days in the fridge and is excellent on rice on its own.
Ingredient substitutions
- Oyster sauce substitutes with vegetarian mushroom oyster-style sauce.
- Dark soy sauce gives the gravy its colour. Without it use extra light soy and accept a paler sauce, or add a teaspoon of molasses.
- Flaked almonds are the traditional garnish. Slivered or chopped whole almonds work equally well; toast whichever you use.
Good with
From Christoph Mayer