“Tired of sweet & sour pork dish? How about “sweet & sour” fruity chicken dish this time?!”
ZESPRI® Kiwifruit wrote to me recently, asking if I was interested to try their kiwifruit so as to create a recipe using kiwifruit. Yes, why not? I think my readers and friends would surely like to cook a dish using fresh fruits, that was my thought.
Kiwifruit, loaded with vitamin C (2X the amount of orange), dietary fibre, potassium, folate, vitamin E, carotenoids and other antioxidants. It has low GI and is low in fat, and calories (<60kcal/100g).
I would certainly like my family to have more. Oh we’ll, I feed slightly steamed Kiwifruit mixed with cereal and milk to my baby as breakfast. Serving fresh Kiwifruit as afternoon snack, too, sometimes. He liked it, if the pick wasn’t too sourish. Ha.
As for cooking a dish with kiwifruit, I wasn’t too sure as it sounded too limited for choice of having it cooked as a briny dish instead of salad or sweet dessert. I knew too little, perhaps. The sauce of “咕咾肉” (Sweet & Sour Pork) came to my mind, and I was confident that I could improvise something of of this though. Not for pork this time, I preferred chicken to go with kiwifruit… but of course, stick to pork is fine, too.
And, here you are…
Ingredients
2 Zepris® green kiwi fruits, peeled and diced
1 mango, peeled and diced
150 gram of water
2 – 3 tablespoons of sugar
½ teaspoon of Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce
Pinch of salt and pepper
Cornstarch slurry (made of ⅓ teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved with 1 tablespoon of water)
250 gram of chicken fillet, cut into chunky cubes
1 tablespoon of chicken granule
1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
Pinch of sugar
5 tablespoons of corn flour
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 cups of cooking oil
Method
1) Marinate chicken fillet cubes with chicken granule, oyster sauce and sugar. Combine well and keep in the refrigerator for at least 30 min.
2) Divide ⅓ of the diced kiwifruit and mango out to keep aside for later. Blend the remaining 2/3 each of the fruit with water. Pour mixed fruit juice into a bowl, and add sugar (final amount depends on the natural sweetness of the fruits you are using), Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Stir well and combine and set aside for later.
3) When chicken cubes is well marinated. Thickly coat the marinated chicken with corn flour. Heat wok with oil over medium fire. Deep fry coated chicken till golden brown. Drain oil on kitchen towel.
4) Discard excessive oil in wok and leave only 1 tablespoon of oil. Reduce heat to low fire. Add garlic, and sauté till fragrant. Return fried chicken cubes to the wok, followed by fruit sauce. Stir fry a little to combine chicken with sauce. Lastly, gradually add cornstarch slurry to thicken the fruit sauce, to your desire. Dish up and serve immediately.
Simple, fruity and refreshing chicken dish!
Oh yes, you’ll like it, your kids will like it!
Tips: To make an express cooking, use frozen “popcorn” chicken by CP brand or New Moon brand. Simply bake the frozen chicken at 150° C for 15-20 min. CP brand or New Moon brand can be found at major supermarkets e.g. NTUC Fairprice, NTUC Finest, Sheng Siong, Shop n’ Save, and some neighborhood mini marts.
* If you still prefer pork, I have my previous “popcorn” pork recipe for you, too! Click recipe: Popcorn Pork
* Zepris® Kiwi is available at major supermarkets e.g. NTUC Fairprice and Sheng Siong supermarket. It comes in a punnet of 6, usually.
* Cook the sauce separately and pour onto the fried chicken cube only upon serving, if you aren’t serving it immediately.
* It’s not necessarily to add all the cornstarch slurry for sauce thickening. On contrary, add more water to blend the fruits, if you like to have a more saucy dish.