part 1 of 3 cup chicken

can you believe that it's been more than a month since my last post? time sure flies by fast when there isn't enough of it. haven't been inspired to cook very much or at all, and having lent my camera to my aptmate for a spiffy project, pictures and tasty eats have somehow eluded me. i think the last time i've actually cooked anything other than rice was sometime a week ago.. or was it two weeks since the snow peas and beef? so let's see what i've been subsisting on:

toast
coffee
rice
coffee
granola bars (some of you will know my efforts to foist them off on you at every chance i can get)
sardines
vitamins
coffee
pasta
beans
bagged salad... ew, right? what has been happening???

i hope that this supreme laziness and apathy towards food will soon pass. in the meantime, here's something i made a couple of weeks ago out of curiosity. presenting part 1 of 3 cup chicken. and yes, there will be a part 2 sometime in the near future.

hearing TheABC enthusiastically rave over the best 3 cup chicken he's ever had, i decided to try to make my own just to see if it'd be any good. so 3 cup chicken is this chinese dish whose name comes from the (or so the story goes) 1 cup of oil, 1 cup of soy sauce, and 1 cup of wine used to cook chicken. decided to recreate this dish in the spirit of the the SCA (Society for Compulsive Authenticity) by using exactly one cup of each ingredient... plus a half a bulb of garlic, some ginger, and a couple stalks of green onion.

put all the aforementioned ingredients into a pot, along with a few teaspoons of sugar and set to boil. once it hit boil, i tossed in some chicken thigh pieces, and after reaching boil again, turned the heat down to a simmer. kept it like that for about 20 mins b/c i was afraid to under cook the chicken (the pieces were pretty thick) then fished them out. as you can see in the picture, one piece has been disfigured to check for doneness. it looked and smelled great.. but was waaay too salty. i think i'll cut back on the soy next time, or the cooking time and use smaller pieces.

btw, i used sesame and vegetable oil, rice wine, and dark soy. using merlot and olive oil is not recommended.