The Philippine Online Chronicles

If there’s one dish from my childhood that has made a lasting impression, it’s bacon-wrapped chicken in cream of mushroom sauce. Holy Campbell’s soup, Batman. Just saying the dish’s name in my head gives me the shivers. It was a dish our then-housekeeper had perfected.

If Proust had his Madeleine, I had my bacon-wrapped chicken in cream of mushroom sauce. I remember spooning the rich sauce over my steamed white rice, slicing into the chicken embraced by a single bacon strip, swirling the piece of meat in the ocean of sauce created on my plate then bringing it to my mouth, relishing every morsel. It was the pinnacle of comfort food. All the stress of my school day would disappear in that first tablespoon of creamy bacon-wrapped chicken goodness.

Then our housekeeper left, taking the recipe along with her. Crap. There goes that childhood favourite.  Efforts to replicate it have been futile. It doesn’t taste the same anymore. Or maybe it does, but I’m not romancing it the way my fifth-grade self did. Perhaps today I’m more conscious about the calories behind each spoonful of sauce, the cholesterol each strip of bacon brings. Once in awhile though, I take out this recipe. It’s a loose interpretation of how our former housekeeper prepared it, but it’s close enough to whisk me back to my student days.

Ate J’s Bacon-Wrapped Chicken in Cream of Mushroom Sauce

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Take one strip of bacon and wrap it around a rolled up a skinless chicken breast fillet. Repeat with remaining bacon and chicken -- you can allot one piece per person. Place on a tray and bake for 25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

While that’s in the oven, pour one can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, while continuously stirring. Reduce heat, then add ¼ cup of all-purpose cream OR milk.  Simmer for three minutes.

While that’s simmering, pour a bag of frozen mixed vegetables (carrots, corn and peas) into a pot of hot water. When thawed, drain. You can serve these as a side dish, but mixing these vegetables into the sauce is more delicious.

Arrange the bacon-wrapped chicken pieces on a serving platter. Pour the sauce over the meat. Resist the urge to dip your finger into the sauce. Resist the urge to eat ahead of your family.

Ta-da! This is Ate J’s food legacy. This is my Madeleine. Cook it and find out why.

Imagine this dish smothered with mushroom sauce, then dotted with the greens, oranges and yellows of mixed vegetables. It makes for a close enough picture.

Chicken is pretty much standard food fare at the dinner table. It’s a very versatile protein, low in fat and high in protein. You can use all of its parts, and it’s less expensive than other meats. Cooking with chicken can get boring though. Sure, adobo’s great. I also enjoy tinolang manok and fried chicken as much as the next Pinoy.  But it’s recipes like Ate J’s that make chicken exciting. Here’s another dish that can level up any chicken:

Maple Chicken Wings: Baked or Stir-fried

Place a dozen chicken wings in a large freezer bag. Into this bag, pour ½ cup of apple juice, 4 tablespoons of maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 pieces of star anise, ½ cinnamon stick, 6 garlic cloves and 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Squish the bag so all the wings get covered with the sauce mix. Marinate in the refrigerator for six hours or overnight.

When it’s time to cook, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Pour out the chicken and the marinade into a baking tray. Roast for an hour and twenty minutes. The wings will be golden brown and sticky! This is the way Nigella does it.

If you don’t have an oven, you can choose to stir-fry this. This is my preferred cooking style, only because it’s faster. My emotional quotient gets severely challenged when I’m anticipating sweet-glazed chicken.  Simply heat oil in a pan, then throw in the chicken pieces to cook for about five minutes. Pour in the marinade, mix well and let simmer for about ten minutes or till chicken is cooked through.

Maple syrup. It’s not just for pancakes.

Now if sweet isn’t your preferred taste profile for chicken, go for something that has a little saltier kick.

Chicken in black bean sauce

In hot oil, sauté 1 tablespoon minced garlic and 1 big minced onion. Add 1 kilogram of sliced chicken pieces. Cook for ten minutes, making sure to constantly toss and turn the meat. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Sauce diluted in ¼ cup of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer till chicken is tender. Add sliced red bell pepper. Turn off the heat after 2 minutes.

Serve over hot rice or noodles, then eat with chopsticks!

This recipe is from a friend. My mother-in-law makes a similar dish, but she adds green bell pepper, tausi, cubes of tofu and mushroom slices. It’s very good. She also serves it with a healthy dose of showbiz gossip and lots of jokes. I think I know where I’m having lunch this weekend.

If you’ve been bitten by the milk tea craze, chances are you’ve seen the following chicken dish on some of the tea shop’s menus. Salt and pepper chicken is a spicy dish, a perfect tandem with cold milk tea. Yum. Why not make this at home? Brew your own tea, add milk, then ice. While that drink’s chilling in the refrigerator, work on this chicken recipe.

Salt and Pepper Chicken

(adapted from Rasa Malaysia)

Cut one chicken breast into bite-sized pieces. To create a marinade of seasonings, in a bowl stir 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 3 tablespoons of 5-spice powder, ½ tablespoon of rice wine, 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper powder, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 egg yolk. Soak the chicken in the marinade for two hours in the refrigerator.

When it’s time to deep-fry, pour out 1 cup of potato starch or corn flour on a hot plate. Dredge the chicken in the flour, making sure each piece is coated evenly.  Deep fry the chicken until golden brown. Transfer the fried chicken onto a plate lined with paper towels. Serve immediately.

This is part of Taiwan’s street food culture, and is also called “popcorn chicken.”

So we have chicken that’s been baked, stir-fried and deep-fried. How about a chicken that’s been spiked? I haven’t tried this one yet, but I sure want to primarily because of the funny picture the chicken makes and secondly because almost every recipe review swears by how succulent the chicken is.

Beer Can Chicken (also called Beer in the Rear Chicken or Beer in the Butt Chicken)

Prepare the grill – fire it up! While that’s heating up, clean 1 whole roasting chicken. Make sure to rinse the cavity well. Pat dry.  To prepare the rub, combine the following spices in a bowl:  ¼ cup of sugar, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. (You can also choose to use your own rub recipe.) Brush the chicken with canola oil. Massage your spice rub over the chicken as well as in the cavity.   Reserve some of the spice rub for the beer.

Here’s what you do with the beer: First, make sure that it fits the chicken’s cavity. Is it a good fit? Great! Then use a can opener to remove the whole top of the beer can. Pour out (read: drink up!) half of the beer. Mix the reserved spice rub into the beer.

Slowly sit the chicken over the can. Place your chicken on the heated grill. Cook until all juices run clear, turning the chicken occasionally. Depending on the size of your chicken, this can take between an hour to an hour and a half. When done, discard the beer can. Let your chicken rest for 15 minutes to let the juices redistribute. This way, you’ll have a moist chicken later on when you slice it up.

Beer. It’s what’s up my butt.

I can’t wait to try this with my friends. Maybe we’ll try it with Red Horse. For those who don’t like beer, a can of Coca-Cola will also do.

Give the recipes a whirl before a family member starts complaining “Chicken again!?” Better yet, involve them with the cooking! Whether covering chicken with a blanket of rich, creamy mushroom sauce or trying to make a chicken sit on a can, these five chicken dishes are sure to make mealtime more interesting. Who knows, any of these dishes can be someone’s future Madeleine.

Photo:  “Bacon wrap chicken” by i <3, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved. Photo: “Golden Goodness” by Susy Morris, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved Photo: “Chicken in Black Bean Sauce” by , c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved. Photo: “2009-07-07_05-34-43” by , c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved. Photo: “Barry's beer chicken” by , c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved.

If you’ve got leftover chicken, Toni Tiu recommends shredding the meat, then heating it up with some barbecue sauce. Use it as filling to make a barbecue chicken sandwich. Sarap! For more food trips, visit her personal blog at Wifelysteps.com.