Chicken Tenders

I don't often cook chicken tenders from scratch.  The ones you can get crumbed and frozen cook up very well.

But this time I had some fresh chicken tenders.

Ingredients:

Chicken tenders

Lardons

Oil (including some garlic oil)

Lump of rock sugar

Black bean chilli paste

Batons of fresh ginger

Chinese cooking wine

Pepper

Fish sauce

A soupcon of black vinegar

Method

Fry your lardons in the oil and then add your tenders and quickly fry off.  Add the seasonings and fry for one more minute.  Then transfer into the oven covered in foil to cook through.

The tenders remained succulent rather than drying out.

Fish sauce

Keep your fish sauce in the fridge – this is controversial since many sites say that it will keep fine in the cupboard for up to 2 years.  A Thai chef however advised me to keep it in the fridge for superior flavour so that is what I do.  I suspect those that don’t keep it in the fridge probably cook with it often enough that the bottles are used up quickly enough.  I do think the small bottles are a better bet than the big ones if you aren’t cooking South East Asian dishes all the time.

I do suggest you try to buy one that is made in Thailand as opposed to Vietnam.

Don’t worry that the end product will smell “fishy” – it won’t.  Fish Sauce is a wonderful ingredient without which Thai food just will not taste authentic. You can also use it instead of salt in dipping sauces for meat or salads.  I will mix a splosh of it with tomato and/or chilli sauce, sometimes also with a splash of soy sauce and lemon juice.  If you don’t include the tomato sauce you will need a soupcon of palm sugar or ordinary sugar for balance.  Yum and not full of empty calories either.


You might also be interested in this post on  Thai curry.  If so, click here