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Ready Jet Cook - Season 3 Episode 3 - Chinese-American Takeout Classics
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00:00What's happening, team?
00:01It's Jet Thiele here, and this is Ready Jet Cook,
00:04where I break down the basics of Asian cooking
00:07and show you my favorite dishes from shop to finish.
00:10Today, I'm showing you two dishes
00:11that were developed in Chinese-American restaurants
00:14and became takeout staples,
00:16beef and broccoli and sesame chicken.
00:19What I love about these stir-fry dishes
00:21is that they are adaptable, quick, and packed with flavor.
00:24So to me, they really embody
00:26the modern Chinese-American cooking experience.
00:35Great beef and broccoli is a balance
00:37between protein, vegetables, and aromatics
00:40all seared together in a wok.
00:42And I'm going to grab the star of the show,
00:44which is beef right here.
00:46You have a lot of options in the world of beef.
00:49I like using chuck personally.
00:51So chuck comes from the shoulder area of the cow.
00:53It works a lot, which makes it really beefy.
00:56And although you think it's tough,
00:57I'm going to show you how to tenderize it
00:59using a technique called velvety.
01:02Although we're making beef and broccoli,
01:03there's no reason why you can't make chicken broccoli,
01:05pork and broccoli, even tofu and broccoli.
01:07I'm going to show you also another chef tip
01:09where I'm going to partially freeze this beef,
01:12which makes it really easy to slice and then velvet.
01:15You can't have Chinese brown sauce without oyster sauce.
01:19In my humble opinion,
01:20this is probably the most important sauce
01:22in Chinese cooking.
01:24Now, oyster sauce doesn't have oyster flavor.
01:27Don't worry.
01:27It brings a really great balance of flavor
01:29that includes salt, umami,
01:31and a little bit of sweetness.
01:33If I had to go to culinary battle with just one sauce,
01:36it would be oyster sauce.
01:37Before I leave, I need some rice wine.
01:40Now, this is not rice wine vinegar.
01:42They are not related at all.
01:44Rice wine adds a really nice kind of floral aroma
01:47to any stir-fry.
01:49Do not drink this, uh, casually, grown-ups,
01:52but you do want to cook with it.
01:54Comes in two colors, either clear or caramel.
01:57Both work great.
01:58And we usually deglaze with it
02:00to get the essence or aroma.
02:01It's very similar to, like, deglazing with any alcohol.
02:04All right, gotta go cook.
02:12Okay, let's prep the beef,
02:13and then we'll get into the rest of it right after.
02:15I've had my beef in the freezer for about an hour,
02:17because it makes it really easy to slice.
02:19So, the freezer trick is an old tip that we use,
02:23and as you can see,
02:24the beef is firmed up kind of perfectly,
02:26so when the knife goes into it,
02:28it doesn't collapse the meat.
02:30If you didn't freeze the meat,
02:32it would kind of just kind of flop around
02:34and want to just compress on you.
02:36I'm also looking to cut against the grain,
02:38so I can actually see these fibers kind of going one way,
02:42so I'm going to take the knife perpendicularly,
02:44go ahead and slice it into thin pieces.
02:46If you left it in the freezer too long,
02:48it might feel too tough to cut through,
02:50so just let it sit on your board.
02:51This is also a really great opportunity
02:53to find the pieces where you might have fat
02:55or connective tissue.
02:57Because it's frozen,
02:58look how easy it is to kind of just trim.
03:00So, you don't have to use everything.
03:02Find the bits you don't like,
03:03and just get rid of it.
03:04I think about it as about, you know,
03:07two to three inches long,
03:09about a quarter inch wide,
03:11and it's really important
03:12that all the pieces are consistent
03:14so they cook evenly.
03:20The beef goes in.
03:22I can take away the gel board.
03:23My main board's good.
03:24I can wash my hands,
03:25and we're super clean.
03:26I break up all my stir-fry dishes into this process.
03:29First, we're going to marinate the meat,
03:31then we're going to mix the sauce,
03:32and then we're going to stir-fry.
03:33Let's talk about velveting.
03:35It is a classic technique
03:38that gets you that super tender protein
03:41for all stir-fries.
03:42Here's the velveting secrets right here.
03:44Baking soda, cornstarch.
03:48For flavor and moisture,
03:49I use a little bit of beef stock
03:51because it's beef.
03:52If it's chicken, use chicken stock.
03:54All good.
03:54For aroma, I like a tiny bit of sesame oil.
03:59To get flavor into the meat,
04:01I'm using oyster sauce here
04:02because I'm using oyster sauce
04:04in the actual stir-fry.
04:06So I've massaged it down
04:07for about 30 seconds
04:09until it's all coated,
04:10and this can go away for a few minutes
04:12until the stir-fry is ready,
04:13or you could actually put this in the fridge
04:15until tomorrow
04:15if you're going to stir-fry tomorrow.
04:16This iconic brown sauce is very simple.
04:18It starts with beef stock.
04:20Here's another tip for you.
04:22Save a little bit of that beef stock
04:23to make your slurry
04:25because it breaks down easier
04:27in small amounts
04:28than it will in the large bowl here.
04:30So you've got the beef stock
04:31and the beef stock for the slurry.
04:33See, it makes it so much easier.
04:34Chicken powder.
04:35Hoisin sauce,
04:36which is a sweeter sauce
04:39than its cousin oyster sauce.
04:42So this is mixed.
04:44Beef, sauce.
04:45It's time for broccoli.
04:46I'm going to cut florets from the crown.
04:48So we call this the crown.
04:49So take the crown
04:50and about an inch down
04:53from each floret,
04:54you're going to make a cut.
05:00Most of the florets on an average crown
05:02is going to be like a half dollar size right there
05:06or almost like a golf ball size.
05:08Sometimes you get these mega crowns
05:10that look like double crowns,
05:12like that one right there.
05:13I would just cut them right in half.
05:14So these for the next dish.
05:17So Chef Mike is coming here
05:18to assist with his dish.
05:19You're wondering who Mike is.
05:21It's Microwave.
05:22That's who it is.
05:23So since I was a kid in restaurants,
05:25we couldn't say the word microwave.
05:28So Chef Mike was our secret code.
05:29To have Chef Mike help us steam this broccoli,
05:32two tablespoons of water inside the bowl.
05:34Cover really tightly with plastic
05:36and give it to Chef Mike for two minutes.
05:40Carefully remove the plastic.
05:43Whew.
05:44Because you don't want to get those steam burns.
05:47And look at that.
05:48Bright green, crunchy.
05:49That's perfect.
05:50So wok is preheated.
05:51Meat, sauce, broccoli,
05:53all the mise en place is ready.
05:54All I have to do is cut up some garlic.
05:56Don't go anywhere.
05:57Don't overthink your garlic.
05:59I like to just going to give it a smash.
06:02Flat.
06:03Smash both cloves.
06:05And then give it one tight,
06:07maybe quarter inch pass.
06:08Remember, this wok is going to be about 400 degrees.
06:11So don't over process your garlic
06:13or it's going to burn.
06:13Okay.
06:14So let's start with a little bit of oil.
06:17And you see that white smoke?
06:19That means the wok is ready to go.
06:21So we're going to start with protein.
06:24So what I'm trying to do basically
06:25is just cook the meat about halfway,
06:31making sure it's nice and brown.
06:33And don't be scared to use the shovel to get in there.
06:37So I've seared the outside of the beef,
06:39but it's still rare on the inside.
06:41I'm going to add my garlic now.
06:42I love using a wok because it's carbon steel
06:46and I can use metal utensils inside here
06:49and really scrape it down
06:51because all these bits that kind of start to stick
06:54are going to become delicious flavor moments inside.
07:00Broccoli is pre-cooked.
07:02Make sure to drain out as much water as possible
07:05before you throw it in
07:07because you don't want little flare-ups.
07:09Since Chef Mike took care of that slight pre-cooking,
07:11I really want the broccoli to get some heat,
07:15trade flavors with the beef before the sauce goes in.
07:19Now I'm going to give you a little bit
07:20of a wok-tossing 101
07:22if and when you're ready to do this.
07:24So what we're basically going to do,
07:26I'm trying to get all the ingredients in one mass
07:29and I'm going to pull back,
07:32push forward and create all that momentum
07:35and then flick it up.
07:37So watch, back, forward, up.
07:39Back, forward, up.
07:40Back, forward, up.
07:41And the secret here is when I'm flipping,
07:44I'm using the shovel to help me flip.
07:48So back, forward, up.
07:49There's your flip.
07:51So if you see all these bits stuck to the pan,
07:54I want to capture all that deliciousness.
07:58The French would call that fond.
08:00That really is just going to be extra flavor.
08:02So a little bit of rice wine around the pan
08:05to grab all those bits
08:08and you can see them start to bubble up.
08:12Check that out.
08:13And while the rice wine is deglazing,
08:17I'm scraping all of the flavors
08:20back into the dish
08:22to help build that sauce.
08:27We've prepared that luscious, lovely brown sauce.
08:31Remember, there's cornstarch in here
08:34and because cornstarch is heavy,
08:35it tends to settle.
08:36So let's give it a good scrape
08:38before we add it around the pan.
08:45Cornstarch gelatinizes at about 180 degrees.
08:48So you'll start to see the sauce in places start to boil
08:53and that boiling means it's going to start to thicken.
08:56So once it starts to thicken,
08:59continue to stir and scrape.
09:03And here I'm going to turn the heat down.
09:06I personally love a little bit of heat here.
09:09So I'm going to add some chili flakes.
09:11If you hate the spice
09:13or if you're serving the kids
09:15or whomever hates heat,
09:17just leave it out.
09:18But I love just a little kick of spice into this.
09:22Look at that.
09:23Look how perfect that looks.
09:25All right.
09:26So your final checks on this dish are,
09:28is the sauce at a good texture?
09:30Yes, the beef is cooked.
09:31Broccoli is cooked.
09:32Let's get our rice and plate.
09:34That's it.
09:35My favorite way to eat this dish
09:37is with a nice bowl of hot jasmine rice.
09:40Everything is in here.
09:42You got your proteins and your vegetables.
09:44All stir fries are best hot right out of the wok.
09:47Your beef and your broccoli,
09:49all in that perfect bite right there.
09:54Oh.
09:56Saucy, savory, crunchy.
09:57That deep umami of that brown sauce
10:00and the bright acidity of that rice wine
10:02and broccoli,
10:03and you can't beat this velveted beef.
10:06It really is the star of the show.
10:08There's a good reason why this dish
10:10has been kicking around the globe for centuries.
10:12Coming up,
10:12I'm going to show you a chicken stir fry
10:14that celebrates a classic Chinese ingredient,
10:17sesame.
10:17Don't go anywhere.
10:18Welcome back, family.
10:20Now that we've mastered one iconic takeout staple,
10:23it's time to master another.
10:29Sesame chicken is all about the perfect balance
10:31between crispy chicken, sauce, and aromatics.
10:34I'm going to show you how to get maximum sesame flavor
10:37into this two different ways,
10:39starting with white toasted sesame seeds.
10:42So untoasted sesame seeds have zero sesame flavor,
10:46believe it or not.
10:47It takes the toasting to coax out all that amazing aroma.
10:51This is that one place where the store-bought
10:53is going to give you better flavor
10:55than trying to do it at home.
10:56Next, I'm going to show you everything you need
10:58to build your sauce.
11:02First, I need to grab some sesame oil,
11:04since it is sesame chicken,
11:06but not all sesame is the same.
11:08You're always going to want to look for toasted
11:11or roasted sesame oil,
11:12and it's going to have this nice dark color.
11:14Because it's such an aromatic oil,
11:16you don't want to use it for frying
11:18or, like, starting a pan or a wok,
11:20because it has a very low smoke point.
11:22It's very volatile.
11:23I got to check out and get cooking.
11:31Sesame chicken is not an old-school Chinese dish.
11:35It's actually a new-school dish
11:37popularized in Chinese-American restaurants.
11:40I did not grow up eating this dish,
11:42but it is a dish that I've grown to love over the years,
11:44especially after a night out.
11:47So we're starting with chicken thighs,
11:49which, in my opinion,
11:50is the perfect part of the chicken for deep frying,
11:53because it's moist,
11:55it has just enough fat in it,
11:56it will not dry out.
11:58It's pretty fry bulletproof.
12:00One thing to look out for with thighs
12:01is sometimes they have these little pieces
12:03of fat or connective tissue.
12:05Feel free to cut them off.
12:06So take that knife at an angle
12:08and just get rid of those.
12:09So I'm starting with a boneless thigh.
12:11It comes from the store this way.
12:12This is a big old tile, in my opinion.
12:14So if you take a tile down to a slice,
12:18and in this case, it's a one-inch slice,
12:20and then you take these slices into one-inch dices,
12:23it's very, very simple.
12:24All right, all the chicken is done.
12:26I need a bowl to marinate it all in.
12:30That goes in there,
12:31and now I can clean and sanitize myself
12:34before the velveting.
12:35So next, I'm going to start the marinade to the chicken.
12:38I'm starting with water,
12:40sesame oil for sesame chicken.
12:42We're going to be layering sesame
12:43in a few different places.
12:45Chicken powder,
12:46and then finally, some oyster sauce.
12:49So I'm going to massage this for about 30 seconds.
12:53The water is going to help us develop a crust
12:56because I'm going to start bringing in the flours now.
12:58I'm just creating my version
12:59of a classic crispy dredge or coating.
13:03A dredge is basically a dry flour mix
13:06to coat the protein,
13:07but I'm going to show you how to use it also for the crust.
13:10My secret is cornstarch and flour.
13:14I think the cornstarch lightens it up,
13:16and the protein in the flour
13:18kind of gives you that crispiness.
13:19So it's kind of the best of both worlds.
13:21I'm going to mix these together really, really well.
13:24I'm taking the wet, marinated chicken.
13:29I'm placing it in that kind of dredge,
13:33getting it coated.
13:35The moisture on the chicken
13:37is actually grabbing those bits
13:40of cornstarch and flour,
13:42and that's going to become our coating or the fry.
13:45If you've ever fried chicken,
13:46this is what we call the shag,
13:48which is going to be nice crispy bits.
13:50The more uneven and the more crusty that is,
13:52the more crispy it's going to be post-fry.
13:56So I just like to work in batches.
13:58It's okay to make sure the chicken's really wet.
14:01In fact, I can throw a little more water in here
14:04if I want a little bit of a thicker crust.
14:06So what I do is I make a little well,
14:09and this just gives me the option
14:10to almost like double crust.
14:12So you can see already dredged,
14:15little more wet back in the dredge,
14:17and I'm just getting a thicker crust that way.
14:19And I'm working into a sheet pan.
14:25So I'm going to save my flour for another crispy trick,
14:28and I'll show you in a second.
14:29This will go away,
14:30and it's time to build our sauce.
14:32Pretty simple here.
14:33So in a bowl, I'm going to combine ketchup,
14:36honey, vinegar, brown sugar.
14:41I'm going to make a little bit of a slurry right here.
14:45Dark soy.
14:47Remember, sesame chicken needs a lot of sesame.
14:49sesame flavor, so more of that sesame oil.
14:53Chicken powder, and then oyster sauce.
14:56So there's your sesame chicken sauce ready to go.
14:59All you need to prep for the aromatic side
15:01is some garlic cloves and ginger.
15:04Garlic cloves, lay it flat, smash it flat,
15:09and give it a nice kind of tight pass.
15:11Keep it kind of chunky.
15:12I do like this on the larger side
15:14because I think it fries up and eats deliciously,
15:17and it won't burn that way.
15:18So as for ginger,
15:20I'm going to start by peeling the ginger,
15:22and I like to square off and flatten the ginger.
15:25Use the back of my knife
15:26and just rub the back of the knife onto the ginger body.
15:33It'll pull that ginger skin right off.
15:37That gives me that kind of one-inch piece
15:39that's easily measurable now.
15:42And then remember the Jet Tila cutting rhyme.
15:44A tile becomes a slice.
15:47A slice becomes a die.
15:48So nice, thin tiles, tiles on top of each other.
15:55So you could leave them in these blades of grass as well
15:57if you like ginger,
15:58but if you want to taste ginger
16:00and not necessarily feel those long pieces of ginger,
16:04just finish the little mints that I'm doing here.
16:07All right, so my sesame chicken is almost ready to fry,
16:10but I'm going to show you one last trip
16:12to make it even more crispy.
16:14Remember how I saved some of that flour?
16:15Well, we're bringing it back.
16:17I've preheated my frying oil in a large Dutch oven,
16:20so it's ready to go.
16:22I like to use a neutral oil,
16:24vegetable, corn, canola, avocado.
16:27Any of those are great.
16:28Do not use sesame oil or olive oil.
16:30They just have too much flavor
16:31and they burn at too low of a temperature.
16:34In my restaurants, we make sesame chicken in one wok
16:36because we have so much heat on that jet burner.
16:39At home, you don't have that much firepower,
16:41so I love this method of frying in a Dutch oven
16:44and then finishing this dish in a separate walker pan.
16:48I'm organizing my fry station
16:50to be nice and neat and efficient,
16:52so I'm going to put my hot oil
16:56close as possible to the chicken in the middle.
17:00Okay, so remember that extra flour?
17:03Now we're going to use it
17:04for a little bit of a thin batter
17:06to finish frying this chicken.
17:09Now I'm going to grab a few pieces at a time,
17:12roll it in this kind of a thin slurry,
17:16and watch how it starts to fry.
17:19That's perfect right there.
17:21So the shag or that buildup of flour,
17:24which will become crust, is adhered.
17:26Now I'm rolling it into kind of the wet batter,
17:29and that's going to fry on
17:31and lock all that crispiness in.
17:34Once you kind of get a feel,
17:35you can do a few pieces at a time,
17:37making sure, though, to never overwhelm this oil.
17:40You always want to see constant rate of bubbles,
17:44and that means it's frying up nicely.
17:46And you want to make sure,
17:47using a spider,
17:49to start pulling these pieces apart
17:50and letting them fry up into individual pieces.
17:53I like to fry these chicken pieces at 375.
17:57It's going to take about four to six minutes,
17:59but they'll be perfectly cooked through
18:01and super crunchy.
18:02Oil is maintaining the heat well.
18:05I'm going to start loading it
18:06with a few more pieces.
18:08All right, so my first batch is in.
18:10I have a wire rack over a half sheet
18:12to grab all these pieces of fried chicken
18:15and let them still stay crispy.
18:17Look at that.
18:18That's what I'm looking for right there.
18:22All right, first batch done.
18:25Super crispy.
18:27Don't worry about perfect golden brown,
18:30like fried chicken golden brown,
18:31because you have that amazing sauce
18:33that's really going to give the color
18:35and the sheen to this dish.
18:40I've got my crispy chicken nuggets.
18:42I've got my sesame sauce.
18:43I've got my mise en place.
18:45We're going to grab the wok
18:46and finish this dish up.
18:47First thing I'm going to do
18:48is put oil in this hot wok,
18:50and we're going to cook up
18:51that ginger and garlic.
18:55We're just going to lightly perfume the two,
18:57and then I'm going to pour my sauce right in.
19:00So knowing that this chicken is crispy,
19:03I don't want to sog out that crust,
19:06and the way to do it
19:07is to cook the water out of the sauce.
19:09The cornstarch activates,
19:10the sugar caramelizes,
19:11and the water evaporates,
19:13so by the time the chicken nuggets go in,
19:15there's no water to make it soggy.
19:17Sugar and fat do not make crispy things soggy.
19:21It's water.
19:22So I'm looking for small bubbles in this sauce.
19:25I can feel with my spatula
19:28that it's tightening up and thickening up,
19:30and that's the time I'm going to add my chicken.
19:33So the sauce is ready.
19:35Time to add the chicken.
19:40This is our final chance
19:42to reinforce all that sesame flavor,
19:44and we're going to do that
19:45with a nice hit of the sesame oil
19:48and toasted sesame seeds,
19:51and this is where you're going to fold
19:53and then toss.
19:56Look at that.
19:57This is when it turns from already delicious
20:00to that coated, sweet, crunchy treat.
20:04I've got perfect coverage.
20:06I've got crispy bits.
20:08Let's turn that off,
20:10and now I'm going to do that final hit
20:12of sesame seeds to stick all over.
20:19Platter's down.
20:20Check out the chicken.
20:21Nothing is sticking.
20:22It looks perfect.
20:23Let's get it right onto the platter.
20:27Come on.
20:27Look at that.
20:29That's better than takeout,
20:30and you made it at home.
20:32Now remember, it's twice fried,
20:33so it's going to be a little hot,
20:34so be careful.
20:41Oh, man.
20:42It is crispy.
20:43It is umami.
20:45It is sweet.
20:45It is sesame.
20:46That flavor of sesame
20:48really comes through from the oil
20:49and the seeds.
20:50This definitely is one of my favorite dishes.
20:53Now you can bring Chinese-American takeout
20:55right into your kitchen from the market.
20:58Give these stir fries a try,
20:59and I'll see you next time
21:00on Ready Jet Cook.
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