If the process used by Chinese restaurants to tenderize beef described above sounds a bit like a hassle, you can still tenderize beef using a shortcut. Add your velveted beef one after the other when the oil is hot. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. Velveting is the secret! How to Butterfly a Steak (A Step-by-Step Guide), How Long Can Ground Beef Sit Out? document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Velveting beef for stir fry what a winner of a tip. English Roast Beef 4. Cornstarch, of course, added in the last minutes of cooking, or better yet, used to velvet the ingredientsto coat the pieces themselves in a cornstarch-based slurry. How to Use Baking Soda to Tenderize Meat by America's test kitchen This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. How to Velvet Chicken for Stir-fry - The Woks of Life If you like, you can make use of chemical methods such as baking soda, salt, or dairy products to tenderize meat. Add the chicken in one layer, and allow to sear for 20 seconds. But the beauty of stir fries is that there's always a flavourful glossy sauce! The traditional method for velveting uses a large amount of oil; however, most home cooks don't have large industrial-sized woks and a restaurant-quantity amount of oil lying around. The meat was so tender, silky, and smooth. With a slotted spoon, remove chicken from pot and drain well. Ive personally found that even just marinating the protein without completing this extra step makes a huge difference. I like to add sliced onions or garlic as well, which gives the alliums additional time to soak up the oil and salt. The best parts of you delicious recipes your humour and big smile. If you blanch meat in water, Young suggests having a colander ready in the sink, drain the pieces in the colander, and thoroughly shaking out any water before stir frying. Stay away from adding fresh aromatics such as garlic or ginger, though: the high heat of the oil will burn them to a crisp. Thats enough time for all the velveting sauce or baking soda mixture to tear off all those connective tissues holding the flesh firmly. Shake off excess water, then use paper towels to blot away excess water (doesn't need to be 100% dry). Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators., Mention @KawalingPinoy and hashtag your photo with #KawalingPinoy, Welcome to Kawaling Pinoy. Check out our detailed posts on: Velveting is an essential step when preparing chicken breast (or even dark meat) for stir-frying. However, I discovered two infallible and easier ways to perfectly velvet beef, with soy sauce and baking soda. Worked BEAUTIFULLY Your email address will not be published. Remember to slice across the grain, especially if using chicken breast. But its not the use of a wok or high heat alone that yields the signature texture. I'm Kristy a chef and connoisseur of all things BBQ! Make sure to browse around and pick a favorite dish or two. On rare occasions, you may get a tough chicken breasta condition called woody breast, caused by hardened muscle fibers. This technique is known as velveting, because meats marinated with cornstarch have a velvety smooth texture on the outside and retain moisture on the inside. Whisk in the egg white till well combined but not frothy. To find out if a soak longer than 15 to 20 minutes would do more harm than good, we treated 12 ounces each of ground beef, sliced chicken breast, and sliced pork with baking soda teaspoon for the beef and 1 teaspoon for the sliced meatsfor different lengths of time before cooking them. Isnt it amazing how velvety and soft the chicken turns out? The solution is to add a smaller amount of baking soda and increase the marinating time. Shake off then pat away excess water (doesn't need to be 100% dry). The meat is then lightly cooked on the outside before cooking it all the way through. Basically, you need to freeze it evenly and take it out the following day, week, or up to four months. If using beef for noodle dishes or dishes like Beef and Pepper Stir Fry, an extra step to slice beef into thin strips (julienne) is required. Tenderising beef enables you to make fast-cook beef recipes using economical cuts of beef that usually require slow cooking to break down the tough fibres, like in Stews. Before slicing them, I put them into the walk-in freezer until they were partially frozenfirm but not solid. There are several methods available, I've introduced the cornstarch/par-boil method in my ' How to Velvet Chicken ' post. Velveted meat tastes best with preparations that are heavy on sauce and flavor. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Technique Thursday: Velveting In Chinese Cooking - MICHELIN Guide (Velveting chicken) . The Secrets to Perfect Stir Frying, According to a Chinese Restaurant Chef, The Taiwanese Kitchen Appliance Icon That Made Its Way Stateside, 59 Chinese Recipes Everyone Should Know How to Make, Sign up for the Food Network Shopping Newsletter Privacy Policy, KFC Brings Back Its Mind-Boggling Bunless Chicken Sandwich, The Double Down, The Key Food Moments You May Have Missed in The Last of Us, Peeps-Flavored Pepsi Makes Its Adorable Return. I love this cooking technique! Usually it is easier to do two steps - brine/tenderize then velvet. How do you make velvet beef with baking soda? For this method, bring the water to a boil on high heat, add one tablespoon of peanut or vegetable oil, reduce the heat to low and when the water is barely simmering, carefully add the meat and gently stir so the pieces dont clump together. If you dont add egg, its generally important to add a little bit of water to make the mixture liquid and properly coat the meat, says Kathy Chen, head chef at Wenwen, a cozy Taiwanese eatery in Brooklyn. When it turns opaque, cook for an additional 10 seconds (the chicken will be cooked 80% through). Pictured below is the marinated beef before cooking. MARINATE: Add the thinly sliced beef, soy sauce, 1 tablespoon water, cornstarch, baking soda, white pepper, and garlic powder to a bowl and stir to combine.Set aside for at least 15 minutes and ideally, 1-2 hours works best to tenderize the meat. Set aside for 1-2 hours. While oil-blanching can require a lot of oil, you can also blanch meat in water. What to Serve with Beef Tenderloin (23 Ultimate Choices). Step 1. Or, you could just put it in a freezer bag. 626628916 Beef Bourguignon in a white soup bowl on black . However, its up to you. Because this is a Chinese restaurant method, Im sharing this with stir frieslike Beef and Broccoliand stir fried noodles in mind. Then, the cook adds it to a stir-fry with other ingredients. Velveted inexpensive cuts of beef turned ultrasilky in a soup seasoned with ginger and black pepper. Mix everything together well, then refrigerate for 30 minutes. Add beef and spread out, leave for 1 minute until browned. Velveting Chicken: The Chinese restaurant secret to tenderising chicken When slicing the flank steak into small pieces, slice against the grain (perpendicular to the long lines of muscle). Just season the ribs with salt and pepper, pour the cream and vanilla and let it sit for about an hour. That said, if your chicken is a bit more fibrous than usual, take care to cut across the grain, similar to slicing beef. Just like in stir fries made by your favourite Chinese restaurant! There are several ways to tenderizing beef for stir-fries. First, you must slice your beef like youre making pastrami or corned beef. More often than not, its thanks to one simple pantry staple: cornstarch. Whether you go with the simplest approach, or more advanced restaurant-grade methods, velveting makes a huge difference, and is an essential step to making any stir-fry dish top notch. cornstarch, 1 Tbsp. To give your velveted meat an even thicker coating of sauce, add an egg white to the slurry. If using shrimp or scallop, make sure to shake out the water before combining it with any egg white-cornstarch mixture. Thats the whole point, but it can only be done if the meat is thinly sliced. The chicken breast in this photo was partially frozen for easy slicing. Weve seen other sources on the Internet suggest adding egg white to velveting marinades. In most cases you want to preserve their fresh taste and natural texture, says Leung. Velveting in Water In a pot over high heat, combine about 2-inch deep of water and 1 tablespoon of oil. Baking soda is a powerful tenderizer, but if too much is added, it can add an off-taste to the beef, which is why it is rinsed off. In a pot over medium heat, heat about 3-inch deep of oil (meat should be fully submerged in oil). We like using beef chuck steak for stewing and braising because of the extra fat that comes with this cut of meat, but it can also work nicely for stir-fries. So whether chopped or sliced, you can freeze it for up to 4 months. But velveting works with any kind of meat, so long as the meat is cut into thin strips or small pieces. Super Tender Mongolian Beef Recipe - Little Spice Jar document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. (See Note 1 for different cuts). Follow step 3 and increase the marinating time for your beef at least 15 minutes. 2023 Warner Bros. My name is Lalaine and welcome to Kawaling Pinoy. Velveting Meat Is a Chinese Cooking Technique That Will Improve Your Have you ever wondered how Chinese restaurants get their chicken to be so tender and moist-looking? I use the coated meat in soups, stews, or stir-fries, transforming them from mere sustenance into meals with restaurant-level finesse. 5 stars for sure! Or add velveted meat to stir-fried noodle dishes like Classic Lo Mein or Andy Liangs Singapore Mei Fun. I recently made velveted beef for my Thai green curry recipe. Because were using thin slices of beef here and its been tenderised, we dont need to marinate for long. Whether you prefer them crispy, sticky, grilled or baked, take stock of these expert tips. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. See how the knife is positioned where it will cut the beef against the grain? Here are a few recipes that can serve as a starting point for your culinary velveting adventures: Velveting is an easy yet essential technique for Asian stir-fry. However, oil- nor water-blanching is absolutely necessary, especially for home cooking. rice vinegar. Meat or seafood is marinated and pre-cooked in oil (or sometimes poached in boiling water). The thin gelatinous coating seals in the beef juices which keeps it moist and gives it a slippery mouth feel, hence the name velveting! So easy. (If you can't find Shaoxing wine in a local Asian market, dry sherry or a rice wine like sake make decent substitutes.).