Drunken Chicken Legs

I’ve got a large amount of drunken chicken sauce left after trying Alvin’s recipe. I wonder how I should do with this leftover. I didn’t want to waste it, nor felt I had drunken chicken enough. So, I decided to make a second round of drunken chicken.

This time I used chicken legs only and made it as an appetizer. This dish was served cold with sour and sweet cucumber. The texture of the chicken skin was smooth and the meat absorbed all the sweet wine flavours. It can be served as a refreshing appetizer in summer, or a side dish for meat lovers.

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Baked Drunken Prawns (焗醉蝦)

To make this drunken prawns dish is very straightforward without any fuss at all. All the flavours are absorbed by the tender prawn meats.

Drunken prawns are very popular in Chinese cuisine just like drunken chicken dishes.

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Drunken Chicken (醉雞)

When Alvin placed his Drunken Chicken with Bruised Salad before the MasterChef judges, it’s amazing to watch how the judges were impressed by Alvin’s creation on TV show. The satisfaction shown through the judges’ facial and verbal expressions really got me want to try Alvin’s drunken chicken at that moment. The meat is succulent and penetrated with the rich flavour of Chinese rice wine. Best of all, it’s simple and easy to make. Yet, I never thought that mirin could be used in this famous Chinese dish. The mirin adds a bright touch to the chicken and enhances the flavour of the stock.

Alvin’s dishes always shine his cleverness of mixing sweetness, tang and heat as Matt Preston, one of the MasterChef judges quoted on the magazine,

“Alvin stole our hearts with this dish (in fact, it was George’s favourite of the series), which he put up at the start in the childhood memories challenge. At its best, Alvin’s food is loaded with crunchy textures and a delicious interplay of sweetness, tang and heat. This dish is no exception.” – Matt Preston

Follow Alvin’s thinking of how to incorporate childhood memories in cooking, I also added some wolfberries (杞子) that my mother used to put in this dish because my mother believes they are beneficial to our health, still keeping the traditional savory taste by adding a small amount of soy sauce. (Hop over to see how I made use of the sauce leftover - Updated on 11 Aug. 2010)

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Laksa-Fried Chicken with Mint Sauce

This recipe was created by Adam Liaw who won the title of MasterChef, Australia recently, inspired by fried chicken stalls in Malaysia. The name of the dish, Laksa-Fried Chicken with Mint Sauce, really got my attention. I have ever thought that laksa could be used in frying chicken due to all my previous encounters of laksa in soups. Flipping through the pages of the MasterChef Magazine and browsing all the mouth-watering recipes, I felt this dish was a must to try first. (I made Alvin’s drunken chicken before buying this magazine.) It’s a big hit in my family when the laksa-fried chicken was served on the dining table before my family. My hubby even made a remark that this dish was even better than the roast duck we ate in a restaurant on the day celebrating my birthday.

Amongst all the MasterChef magazines I bought, this issue is very special, so to speak, it’s a celebration of the achievements of the top four finalists along the journey in the competition. To me, it’s quite amazing that you’ve found someone who you know via twitting/blogging was mentioned in a magazine right in front of your nose. Congratulations on the feature of your blog, Ellie.

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