Burmese (?) Chicken Stew

While I was in Afghanistan, a few of my friends posted links to recipes from the She Simmers blog.  I'm a big fan of Thai food, and her recipes look incredible, so I made a mental note to go back once I got home and find a recipe or three to make.  This is the first one, and it was so good that I'll DEFINITELY be going back to find some more. 

Before I go on, let me just address one thing.  My first reaction when I read through this recipe was probably the same as your will be: "HOLY CRAP THAT IS A LOT OF GINGER!"  Yes, it's a lot of ginger.  More than I've ever even considered using in any other recipe before.  And yet, it turns out amazingly good, with the ginger not overpowering the rest of the flavors.  Check out the notes at the end for some tips if you're still a bit scared of the ginger.

Anyway, most of the recipes on her blog are Thai, but this one is of questionable origin.  You can read her post for more information, but when I saw her comment, "if you would cook from only one of my recipes, be sure it's this one." I decided to take her up on it.  This was a surprisingly easy recipe once I figured out how to julienne the ginger, and I'll be making it again in the not-too-distant future.

Burmese Chicken Stew

Ingredients:

• 8 medium bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (approximately 3 lbs)
• One whole head of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced (approximately ½ cup, lightly packed)
• Fresh ginger, peeled, sliced, and julienned (approximately 2 cups, lightly packed)
• One medium white or yellow onion, roughly sliced
• ¼ cup dark soy sauce
• 3 Tablespoons fish sauce or 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 Tablespoons brown sugar
• ¼ cup Chinese cooking wine or brandy
• 2 Tablespoons ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cup water

Directions:

1. Set a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the skillet is hot, add the chicken thigh, skin side down. Leave the chicken alone until you get a good sear on the skin side.
2. In the meantime, quickly whisk together the remaining ingredients except the ginger, garlic, and onion.
3. Once the chicken is browned on the skin side (it doesn't have to be cooked through), flip them so that the skin side is now on top. Drain off the excess fat.
4. Sprinkle the julienned ginger and sliced garlic on top of the chicken and pour the seasoning mixture over the chicken. Reduce the heat to medium and close the lid. Forget it for about 20 minutes.
5. Add the sliced onion into the skillet, close the lid, and let the stew cook for another 20 minutes.
6. Serve warm over steamed rice.

Notes:
If you've never julienned ginger before, here's a tutorial.

Notes from the original recipe:

The amount of fresh ginger and garlic called for may scare you, but you just have to trust me. The ginger and garlic get slow-cooked along with the chicken and eventually turn mild, meltingly soft, and sweet. But if you're extremely sensitive to the spiciness of fresh ginger, you may want to rinse your julienned ginger before adding it to the stew.

Use fresh ginger and garlic only. No substitutes. No shortcuts. No whining.

The ginger needs to be julienned and the garlic thinly sliced crosswise. This is because 1. Grandma did it this way, and 2. I once tried to save time and energy by pulsing the ginger and garlic in a food processor and the stew became a goopy mess with the taste of garlic and ginger being too overpowering.

Use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs for best results. You can use boneless chicken, but it won't be as flavorful due to the absence of the bones. I figured a cut-up whole fryer would do. But I do not recommend boneless, skinless chicken breast.

Be careful when cooking with turmeric. Once it gets on your light-colored shirt, it's there for eternity and a day.