Safeways' Ginger Chicken-recipe possible??

FERRANTE said:

Yesterday while in the doctor's waiting room I came across an issue of Oprah, which I began to look
at. In there was an ad for Safeway Select Dinners, this one being Ginger Chicken. Wow, did that
look good! In the ad it said something like, "white chicken covered in a sweet and delicately spicy
ginger sauce..." It looked too good!!

Disclaimer - I've never purchased a pre-marinated hunk-o-chow (tm) but I've been served some in my
time and all I can say is any p-m-h-o-c I've ever eaten could well be improved on, no matter how
good it tastes.

Quoted message said:

Does anyone have any recipes or ideas how I could make a simple ginger sauce, "delicately" spiced,
to pour over some boneless chicken breast?

IME You don't pour anything more complicated than duck or BBQ sauce over a cooked piece-o-chow. You
cook with spices/sauces and perhaps finish with another ingredient or sauce.

If you'd like a good ginger chicken try marinating with a >little< bit of soy sauce and some mirin
after rolling in shredded fresh ginger, smooshed garlic. If you insist on sweet, try substituting
some pineapple juice for the mirin, or using some cocoanut milk.

I'd suggest, for a very nice sweet ginger chicken using either boneless or bone-in chicken pieces,
rubbing the chicken with some garlic and shredded ginger and marinating with a touch of mirin. Then
brown the chicken in a heavy pan until about 2/3rds done. Remove chicken from pan and put on a
warmed platter (tented with aluminum foil) or in a warm oven.

Deglaze the pan with stock, water, or white wine and reduce heavily. In another pan, small and
relatively thin-bottomed, caramelize some sugar. Once the sugar is gently bubbling douse with 1/4
cup of nuoc maam (Southeast Asian fish sauce) and don't reduce. Turn off the heat.

Put the chicken back in the original pan, simmer and flip. When the chicken is done add the caramel
sauce, swish the chicken around in the pan and flip once more. Remove to a serving plate and pour
the sauce over top.

Rice vermicelli works well with this or you can use plain wheat noodles.

Best,

Marc

Quoted message said:

Thanks!

Kinda exotic sounding. If you're not the galloping gourmet, who keeps mirin or nuoc maam around
the house?

Something more of bachelor caliber would be ginger, soy sauce, orange and lemon juices or pineapple
juice, water or white wine, and maybe a bit of sugar. All to taste and don't overdo the ginger. A
teaspoon or so of cornstarch per cup of sauce to thicken, bring to a boil in saucepan while
constantly stirring then pour over the chicken, or even bake the chicken at 350 degrees or so for
half an hour or so (thawed) or 50 minutes (frozen) in a pan with the sauce (would want to use some
extra liquid in that case because some is going to boil off).