Chicken Chop With Mushroom Sauce (Recipe)

My wife wasn't around last Friday as she decided to chill out with her friends for dinner. As both of us like to cook and almost always never could agree who should cook , this was good news to my ears. With her out of the house, I seized the opportunity to take control of the kitchen. It's synonymous to those real life situations whereby the power crazy deputy prime minister takes over the country when the prime minister is overseas. And my god, it felt really good! No wonder these things do happen.

I have always been dreaming of making my own chicken chop so the timing couldn't have been perfect. While most of us would have some idea of the ingredients used to make chicken chop, I surfed the Net to look for some guidance. The only one I found was from Amy Beh. Here are the ingredients I used. I don't believe in giving exact measurements since taste is subjective. Just explore what suits you and always taste what you are cooking to get the right balance.

• 1 piece of chicken breast
• potato wedges
• lettuce
• tapioca flour
• 2 finely chopped shallots
• 1 finely chopped garlic
• 1 egg
• diced mushrooms
• 1 green pepper
• oyster sauce
• Worcester sauce
• thick cream
• salt and black pepper (preferably peppercorn)
• water

To cook, here are the instructions:

1. Tenderise the chicken. If you have a contraption for this, that's fine. As for me, I dont and it all boiled down to brute force. I let my fists do the work.
2. Marinate the chicken breast with Worcester sauce and leave to rest for 30 minutes
3. While waiting, remove the skin of the green pepper. To do this, roast the pepper on your stove. The reason also is that it gives a smoky flavour and add another dimension to the taste. Along the way, you will hear some crackling noises. It truly freaked me out as I thought something might explode. (Just imagine the coroner's report - cause of death by green pepper. What a way to end your life). However, I later learnt that this just means that it's roasting. Keep rotating till every area has blackened. Once done, soak the peppers in cold water to stop the cooking process. Scrap off the skin with the sharp end of the knife and chop accordingly.
4. Once the chicken breast has been marinated, dip it in egg before coating with flour. Cover all areas evenly. Add salt and pepper accordingly.
5. Deep fry the chicken breast till golden brown.
6. To prepare the sauce, saute the shallots and garlic followed by mushrooms and peppers.
7. Add in the oyster sauce followed by water. To heat up things, add in the black peppercorn.
8. Thicken the sauce by adding some cream.
9. Pour onto the chicken and serve.

My chicken chop and potato wedges waiting in anticipation of the mushroom and pepper sauce. Bring em on - so they said.

The egg wasn't suppose to be part of the final presentation. Waste not, want not.......... I can't throw the egg away, can I?

I caused a riot in the kitchen and didn't look forward to cleaning up. My wife would know what to do if she's around.

Overall, it ended up better than I expected. The gravy was very nice, the chicken was tender and most importantly, it was fresh. Cant beat this.