Braised Chicken with Bentong Ginger

For my non-malaysian readers, bentong ginger is like the "kick-ass" version of the normal ginger.

Bentong ginger is significantly hotter and spicier than the normal old ginger, and cost much more. It is popularly used especially during post delivery ie. confinement period to dispel wind.

My ladies group is a constant source of wonderful cooking ideas. This recipe was one of them. It is amazingly simple - only 3 or 4 ingredients, and very appetizing. This can also be considered a confinement dish as it uses bentong ginger and sesame oil, two essential ingredients for confinement foods.

I cooked this the other day and it was polished off in no time by my family. My 6 year old boy loves it, and kept asking for more of the gravy, whilst having a pained expression on his face and gulping down water due to the spiciness. It was quite funny really :)

Braised Chicken with Bentong Ginger
Recipe source : "Chef" Wendy Kang :)

Half a kampung chicken, chopped into 8 chunks, skin on
10 slices of bentong ginger, cut into thin strips
1 tbspn of sesame oil
1 tbspn chinese cooking wine
Salt and pepper to taste

*Note - make sure you use kampung or organic chicken, NOT the supermarket frozen chicken. This dish relies on the flavour of free range chicken, infused with the ginger and sesame oil. Supermarket frozen chicken will not give that depth of flavour, and instead oozes frozen ice liquid that will ruin the dish.

1. Heat the sesame oil and fry the ginger strips until lightly golden. Add the chicken pieces and fry until it loses the pinkish colour.

2. Add the cooking wine and cover. Turn down the heat to low and let simmer for 20-30min until the chicken is cooked through and there is some liquid gravy.

3. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.