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Sunday, July 15, 2012
Chicken Morcon
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| Chicken Morcon |
Chicken morcon is the economical version of the traditional beef morcon. It is made with chicken breast fillet that is marinated in pineapple syrup to give the meat that sweet, tangy flavor.
You have three flavors to consider when making your chicken morcon: sweet, tangy, and salty. All these three flavors must be balanced to create a truly flavorful and unforgettable dish. Sweet and salty can come from the ham and hotdogs, while the tangy flavor is given by the crushed pineapple.
Ingredients
2 pcs skinless and boneless chicken breast sliced very thinly (approx 400 grams)
1/3 cup crushed pineapple or
1/3 cup pickle relish
2 pcs cocktail sized hotdogs cut into strips
10 strips of sweet ham
Oil for frying
Marinade
1/3 cup pineapple syrup
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground or cracked black pepper
Breading
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup of your favorite chicken breading mix
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 egg lightly beaten
Preparing the Meat for Chicken Morcon
You can get your chicken breast either halved or whole. I was not thinking much when I was shopping for ingredients, so I bought my chicken breast already cut in half. If you go to the wet market, or if you are friends with the supermarket attendant, by all means get your chicken breast whole and deboned to save you precious prep time.
I prepared my meat by carefully and gingerly slicing the chicken across with my thin yet very sharp kitchen knife. I placed the meat on the chopping board and carefully cut across the top layer of meat. I do so by placing my left hand flat on top of the chicken breast, with my right hand gliding the knife flat across the meat. Never have I appreciated sharping and honing my knife until that very moment. You should feel the knife going through the meat as you do so.
One chicken breast, if prepared correctly, should give you about 4-6 almost paper-thin portions. Keep your heavy duty thick kitchen knife and just get your very thin and sharp chef's knife that you bought in a local wet market. A thick kitchen knife will not give you that thin layer of meat.
However, if you are having difficulties cutting the chicken, just make that you produce about 3 fillets in every chicken breast half. to make it really thin, get your handy chicken tenderizer ready. It's a flat hammer-like tool that is made of either metal or plastic. Carefully pound the chicken until you get almost as thin as a pie crust, like the ones I have in the photo below.
Marinating the Meat
You can get pineapple syrup by straining your can of crushed pineapple. It may not be a lot to look at, so you can increase the volume, if necessary, buy simmering crushed pineapple in water and sugar for 10 mins. Cool it completely down to room temp or refrigerate before you add in your meat.
By adding in salt, you are essentially creating a brine for your chicken morcon. The brine serves to add flavor and tenderize the meat. This way, you do not need to add too much salt on the breading just to give your morcon flavor. And remember, chicken breast can be really dry. Brinning the chicken will help keep your meat moist even though it's been cooked. You can marinade/brine the meat for 30 mins or up to 4 hours if you will. You can do it overnight, but that can alter the texture of your meat a bit.
Stuffing Your Chicken Morcon
You can now proceed to stuffing your morcon according to your preference. You have the choice of using either pineapple tidbits or pickle relish. However, pineapples go really well with this morcon recipe as you need to get that tangy and sweet balance.
I did my chicken morcon by placing one slice of hotdog, a slice of ham, and about 1/2 teaspoon of crushed pineapple. Do not go too much on the stuffing because your star should be the meat. Hotdog and ham are already salty, and their strong flavors can easily overpower your chicken meat.
Once you are done, carefully roll the chicken like you would a carpet or a piece of paper. Make sure you roll tightly and firmly to keep the filling from spilling. Afterwards, secure your morcon with 2-3 pieces of tooth picks. Your toothpicks mush push through both sides of the meat and should be placed right at the lip of your roll. Secure the ends before piercing, and make sure that the middle portion is secured as well to prevent the filling from spilling over. If you wish to add cheese to your morcon, tie the meat instead to prevent the cheese from spilling out.
Cooking Chicken Morcon
Once all the chicken is rolled, lightly dust your chicken with flour. Afterwards, dip it in egg then roll in in your seasoned bread crumbs. Heat the oil and test the heat by adding a bit of bread crumbs. If it sizzles and floats at the top, then you're ready to cook.
Your oil must have the right temperature for cooking chicken morcon. A cold oil will get absorbed by the bread crumbs, producing an oily, greasy dish. If your oil is smoking hot, then you will cook your morcon too fast resulting in a burnt exterior with a raw center. Deep fry your morcon for about 5-7 minutes, or 4-5 minutes on each side for shallow frying until golden brown. Keep an eye on the oil and don't do anything while you are cooking your morcon as the breading can easily turn colors on you. One minute it's light and yellowish, the next it's dark and burnt. No playing the PSP, no watching your favorite telenovela or soap opera.
Your toothpicks will interfere with your frying, unless you deep fry your morcon. If you prefer to shallow fry, then nip the toothpicks while still making the ends clearly visible. I made a mistake of nipping the toothpicks a little bit too close to the meat and it got swallowed by the expansion of the meat and breading. Result? My husband bit into 2 of the toothpicks because I both forgot and failed to take it out as it was hidden from sight.
The best condiment for this meal is banana ketchup (or catsup for some). We were unfortunate to find our bottle of ketchup while we were eating so we were almost forced to go condiment-less. Fortunately for us, there was some left-over tartar sauce from the chicken lollipop I made for lunch, so we had a really good, fun, relaxing, and enjoyable family dinner.
Thanks for reading my recipe. If you have any questions about the tips or information here, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or message me in my chat box.
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Do not forget to remove the tooth picks before eating,hehe.
ReplyDeleteHeeheehee, sorry, Tatay. XD
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