chinese salted steamed chicken

Ever since I moved from LA to the high desert 3 1/2 years ago, I've been dabbling a lot in cooking.  I did cook before the move, but not like I do now.  Apparently, I wasn't that great of a cook either, but that's neither here nor there.  ANYWAYS, since the high desert is sorely lacking in the Asian foods area (mmm, I'm now craving some Sam Woo BBQ and good phở *droool*), I have started to try cooking some dishes myself.

I have had some success and some failures.  Trust me, I know when I fail because my brutally honest husband will tell me.  Well, a couple nights ago while I was laying in bed, I had a sudden craving for salted steamed chicken.  I think that's what it's called.  In Chinese, it's 鹽水雞, which literally translates to "salt water chicken".  Delicious!  So today, I set out on a mission to make it.

All you need is:

• chicken (I used chicken legs)
• shao xing rice wine
• coarse kosher salt
• green onions

Clean the chicken and pat dry.  For each chicken leg, splash about 1 tablespoon of the rice wine and rub liberally with kosher salt, make sure to get under the skin as well.  Let it sit and marinade for 1 hour.  Prepare steamer by lining with green onions.  Set the chicken on top and steam until juices run clear.  Because I was experimenting, I only made two pieces of chicken--one for me & one for hubby.  I steamed for about 30 minutes.  I'm not sure if I overcooked it or not but I would rather overcook chicken than undercook it and possibly get sick.  Besides, the fact that the chicken is steamed and that dark meat was used pretty much ensured that it was moist and juicy.  And delicious!  Yes, needless to say, it was a big fat success :) :) :)

To go with it, I also made some quick pickled onions.  I lovelovelove these onions.  My mom's been making this since I was little and it is very nostalgic whenever I make these.

All you need is:

• sliced onions
• rice wine vinegar
• fish sauce
• Sriracha

Combine everything and add more vinegar/fish sauce/Sriracha to taste.  Let it sit for about 30 minutes so the flavors can get soaked into the onions.

I think we're going to have this for dinner again in the near future.  Oh yes, I did ;)