Ever wonder why your stir fry chicken breast is always dry and hard, unlike the Chinese restaurant’s silky smooth and tender chicken? Even if we first marinate our chicken in a cornstarch slurry, it often clumps up in the stir fry. Well, there is a secret missing step, it’s called velveting.
Velveting is basically flash cooking the meat either in oil or water prior to using it as an ingredient in a stir fry. Most restaurants use the fry in oil method but for the home, the water boiling method is preferred because it’s just easier and healthier.
Pro Tip: The key is never overcook chicken. It’s safer to under-cook the chicken during the poaching period and you can still cook it during the stir fry. If you overcook the chicken during poaching, you might as well just make it into my Sichuan chicken salad with spicy sesame dressing.
Let’s take a look at how to velvet chicken.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb chicken breast
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp rice wine
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 egg white
- ¼ tsp salt
Directions:
First, thinly slice chicken breasts across the grain. Pro Tip: Easiest to slice when the chicken is still semi frozen. Add in cornstarch, rice wine, oil, egg white, and a pinch of salt. You can use any kind of oil here, preferably something flavorless to allow more flexibility when using the chicken. Massage the chicken while applying some gentle pressure to make sure the chicken is well coated with all the marinade. Place into refrigerator for about 30 minutes to allow the marinade to penetrate the proteins in the chicken. 
Boil a pot of water and reduce the heat to a medium so there are still occasional bubbles. Gently add in the chicken into the water. We are almost ‘poaching’ the chicken with a gentle heat and not a hard boil so the chicken will warm up slowly and retain the moisture. Please note that the water will become cloudy from the egg whites and cornstarch coming off the chicken. Don’t worry, a lot of the marinade is in the chicken already. Stir frequently to prevent chicken from sticking to each other. After about 1-2 minutes, remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and drain. Repeat this process until you’ve finished ‘velveting’ all the chicken. Pro Tip: I usually make up a batch of 2-3 pounds at a time. It can store in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Once the chicken is drained, you can use it immediately to a stir-fry dish or store it in a tight container for a fast dinner the next day.
Note
You can strain the broth and use this as chicken stock for soup or for a future dish. Never waste good broth!
- 1 lb chicken breast
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp rice wine
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 egg white
- ¼ tsp salt
- Thinly slice chicken breast
- Add all ingredients to breast
- Massage the marinade into the chicken breast and let it rest for 30 minutes
- Boil a pot of water and reduce heat to medium
- Add chicken slices and stir for about 1 minute
- Remove with slotted spoon and drain
- Repeat until all chicken has been velveted
- Now ready to be used in any stir fry recipe
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