04/02/2018: As Chinese from Taiwan, my siblings and I love to eat dark meat than white meat of chicken while growing up there. We had chicken thighs or drumsticks only on special occasion such as holidays or birthdays. Now we could have chicken every day if we like. Chicken thighs and drumsticks are still my favorite parts to cook. Here is a recipe to cook the chicken thighs or drumsticks I like the best.

Ingredients:

A pack of Chicken thighs (or drumsticks) or mixed. Green beans and carrots. Dark soy sauce, five spicy powder, garlic powder, ginger powder, corn starch, scallions.

Instruction:

1. Remove whole piece of meat from bone. Save the bone and skin to make a good chicken soup.
2. Marinate all the meat with dark soy sauce, five spicy power, garlic powder, ginger powder and corn starch for at least a couple of hours.
3. Wash the green beans, remove both ends and break them half.
4. Peeled and shredded carrots.
5. Stir-fried green beans and carrots. Add salt, pepper and some water. Mix corn starch, water and litter dark soy sauce to thick the gravy before taking out of pan.
6. Pan-fried the chicken thighs/drumsticks in non-stick pan with enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom of the meat, medium heat. Brown one side about three minutes, turn to brown the other side about another three minutes until it’s fully cooked.
7. Take out the chicken meats, slice them, then put them on top of the plate of green beans and carrots.
8. Thick the remain chick gravy in pan with the mixed corn starch and water. Add chopped scallions in the gravy before pouring it on the chicken.
9. Serve and enjoy the dish.

I like to buy the biggest package of chicken thighs/drumsticks or mix package about 16 pieces. All the bones and skins are great to put into boiling water to make a pot of chicken soup base. After cooking the bones and skins a hour with salt and pepper, I like to threw in diced celery, tomato, daikon and bean curd or tofu for another half hour. Take out all the bones and skins before serving the soup with all the vegetables and little chicken meat from the bones in it. Garnished with cilantro as picture below:

I always have marinated chicken thighs/drumsticks in refrigerator or already cooked and sliced chicken meat in freezer to make a quick chicken meat with any available vegetable dish in short notice. Such as my son calls me on his way home to see if he could invite his friend over for dinner. The answer is always “Yes”. This chicken soup is my granddaughter’s favorite soup. She always request the second.