Saturday Night Comfort

Chicken and Chinese Sausage Rice in a Clay Pot

Just Stella and I tonight, so a one dish, simple, comfort meal felt right.  

Cut chicken thigh or leg meat into bite size pieces and marinate in about 2 tsp of Shaoxing wine, a pinch of salt and 3 tsp of corn starch.  I had 5 drumsticks that I deboned.  Soak 5 dried shiitake mushrooms until soft.  Remove stems and slice the mushrooms.  Take 4 Chinese sausages and slice in diagonal into pieces.  Rinse 2 cups rice  and place in clay pot with about 3 to 3 1/2 cups of water.  I've read the water should be about 3/4" above the rice.  Heat rice on stove to boil, and then add the chicken, mushrooms, then sausage on top.  Cover and cook on very low heat until rice is cooked, maybe about 15-20 minutes.  I finished this in the oven at 375f, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.

I debated adding the following sauce directly into the rice before cooking, but then decided to follow the traditional method and have each person add their own.  

4 Tbsp light soy sauce

2 Tbsp Shaoxing rice wine

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1 small garlic clove minced

1 tsp minced ginger

1 tsp sesame oil

Heat to boil for a couple minutes.  Then cool and set aside until ready to use.

To serve, place into individual bowls, garnish with chopped green onions and the sauce to your taste.  
The pickled vegetables from yesterday made a good companion.