Chicken and Asparagus with XO Sauce

“A simple and flavoursome chicken dish that’s perfect for your weeknight meals”

Look for a bottle of XO sauce from the shelves in groceries department, an easy superlicious ‘chef-class’ chicken dish will be at your finger tips.

XO SAUCE
XO sauce is never made of XO liqour. It is named as XO simply refers its qualitied ingredients used. This premium bottle is filled with seasoned dried scallops that made it as valuable as XO. This sauce is not spicy at all, its pleasant briny taste simply brings up the full flavour of your dish without any extra work needed.

Of course, it never costs a penny to get a bottle of this. I bought it at about S$25 per bottle. There are many different brands in the market, price ranging from $15.90 to $30. I guess it’s all depends on the grade and quality of the ingredients used. Not difficult to find, it’s available in most Asian supermarkets. As for Singapore residents, find this at NTUC Fairprice, Cold Storage, and even neighbourhood mini marts.

Ingredients
2 chicken thighs or half chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
Handful of asparagus (蘆筍), cut into 2″ long crosswise (*choose tender young shoots)
2 tablespoon of XO sauce
Sprinkle of sugar
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons of water
2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Method
1) Heat a pot of water over high heat, and add sugar when boiled. Then, add asparagus and blanch it for one minute. Remove from pot and drain. Set aside for later.

2) Heat wok with oil over high fire. Add garlic and stir-fry till fragrant and lightly browned.

3) Add chicken and water. Stir fry for one minute. Reduce heat to low fire. Cover wok with lid and simmer for 20 minutes, or until chicken is tenderly cooked.

4) Remove lid, add blanched asparagus and stir fry for one minute. Add in XO sauce, stir fry to combine all ingredients well. Sprinkle sugar and continue to stir fry for another minute.

5) Transfer chicken on a serving dish. Try to arrange in a way that asparagus is placed on top if the chicken, for better presentation. Serve hot with steamed rice.

A portion of my XO sauce chicken and asparagus counts about 250kcal.

Tips: Do not over-cook the asparagus, otherwise the greens might lost its crunchiness. Blanch with boiling water for 2 minutes, and then, add them into the wok and stir fry for no more than a minute before dishing up.