Bao buns with stir fried chicken

Bao buns are typical Asian buns that are steamed and can be filled with whatever you like, although the most common filling is with meat and vegetables. They are a healthy way to liven up a meal or dinner, which is why Leti, author of Revelando Sabores , brings us a delicious recipe to prepare them. We assure you that you will love making them and even more so enjoying them!

Surely by now, most of you have already tried baos thousands of times. No, I'm not referring to the ones we make with eucalyptus to clear our nose, but to those that are, without a doubt, the most fashionable sandwiches.

Especially those of you who live in big cities will be tired of seeing them everywhere, as it is rare to find a restaurant or bar that does not include them on its menu. There are even restaurants that are dedicated exclusively to preparing these delicious morsels.

But those of you who, like me, live in small towns, may not have had the chance to try them yet (or maybe you've never even heard of them, let's not kid ourselves).

So for those of you who don't know exactly what they are, I'll tell you that they are sandwiches originating in Taiwan , which we find at street food stalls, and whose buns are steamed , resulting in very tender and spongy buns.

Although the traditional filling consists of meat prepared at low temperature, today I bring you these stuffed with chicken meat that I have prepared in the Ken Hom steel wok and accompanied by vegetables. But the filling of these buns admits a thousand possibilities, we can use the one that best suits our tastes. I even think that they would be delicious filled with cocoa cream, for the snack of the little ones (or the older ones…).

To prepare these delicious bao buns, I used the Ken Hom bamboo steamer , which I couldn't be happier with. Apart from how easy it is to use, it doesn't make any messes, and if we put a little baking paper on the base of the steamer when cooking, we'll hardly have to clean it. And steam cooking couldn't be healthier!

Microplane Zester Grater , Gefu Spirelli 2.0 Spiral Cutter , Boska Cutting Board , Le Creuset Set of Two Ramekins and Ken Hom Carbon Steel Wok .

Ingredients

For the bao buns:

• 250gr of pastry flour
• 100ml whole milk
• 50ml of water
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 20gr of sugar
• 3gr of dry baker's yeast
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (Royal type)

For the filling:

• 500g boneless chicken thighs
• 1 carrot
• 1 red pepper
• ½ onion
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• ½ cucumber
• 3 or 4 radishes
• Cilantro
• A handful of peanuts
• Zest of ½ lime
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch

Elaboration

For the bao buns:

1. Put the flour in a bowl together with the milk, water, yeast, salt, sugar, vinegar and oil.
2. If we are going to knead by hand, we mix the ingredients in the bowl until they are well integrated, at which point we turn the dough out onto the counter and knead until we obtain a smooth and shiny dough.
3. If we are kneading with the Kitchen Aid , we pour the ingredients into the bowl and, using the paddle attachment at speed 2, we knead until the ingredients are well combined. At that point we change the paddle attachment for the dough hook and, at speed 2, we knead until our dough is smooth and shiny.
4. Once the dough is ready, shape it into a ball and place it in a lightly greased bowl, cover it with cling film and let it rise in a warm place away from drafts for approximately 1 hour.
5. Once it has doubled in volume, turn the dough out onto the work surface and gently press down with your fingertips to remove the gas and sprinkle baking powder over the surface. Knead for a few minutes until the baking powder is well incorporated.
6. Then we shape it into a ball again and let it rest for 5 minutes.
7. After this time, and using a scraper or a sharp knife, divide the dough into 6 portions of about 60g each. We can weigh each portion so that they are all the same size.
8. We shape each portion into a ball and let them rest for a few minutes.
9. After this time, we stretch each ball of dough using a rolling pin until it is approximately 4 mm thick, and we give it an oval shape.
10. Once we have the dough stretched out, we will place a small piece of baking paper on half of the oval that forms the dough and fold the other half over it (so that we will obtain a shape similar to an empanada with the baking paper between both parts).
11. We form the rest of the bao buns in the same way.
12. Next, we line the base of the steamer with baking paper to prevent the buns from sticking to the bamboo base and place the bao buns in the steamer .
13. We cover the steamer and let it rise for about 20 minutes.
14. When the resting time is over, we heat water over medium heat in a saucepan with a diameter similar to that of the steamer and, once it begins to steam, we place the steamer on the saucepan.
15. We keep the pot on medium heat and leave the steamer on it for about 10 minutes.
16. After this time, remove the steamer from the pot and let it rest for about 5 minutes without opening the steamer.
17. We take the bao buns out of the steamer, remove the baking paper that separates the 2 parts of the bun and they are now ready to be filled.

Ken Hom bamboo steamer , Joseph&Joseph adjustable rolling pin and Bérard flour scoop .

For the filling:

1. We begin by preparing the sauce. To do this, mix the soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, grated ginger and cornstarch in a bowl.
2. Using a sharp knife, cut the chicken, pepper and onion into strips of approximately 1 cm.
3. We cut the cucumber and carrot using the spiral cutter . We set aside.
4. We cut the radishes into thin slices and set aside.
5. Heat the wok with the sesame oil and, once it is hot, add the chicken strips and sauté until you see that it changes color. At that point, remove it from the wok and add the pepper, onion and carrot.
6. We sauté for a few minutes until they are cooked but still “al dente”.
7. We return the chicken to the wok and add the sauce that we had reserved.
8. We keep it on the heat for a few minutes until the ingredients are well integrated and then we remove it from the heat.
9. We proceed to fill the bao buns with a little of the chicken wok, some radish slices, some cucumber spirals, some coriander leaves, a little lime zest (with the Microplane grater you can get it quickly and cleanly, I'm hooked on it, hehe) and a few crushed peanuts.

Grades

• In my opinion, bao buns are best when freshly made, so while the dough is resting, we can chop up the ingredients for the filling and while the bao buns are cooking, prepare the chicken in the wok, so that when the buns finish cooking, we will have the filling ready.
• If we have to heat the bao buns, the best way to do it is to put them in the steamer for a couple of minutes again, never in the microwave, as it dries them out excessively.

Ken Hom bamboo steamer , Le Creuset ceramic ramekins , Boska cutting board and Ken Hom carbon steel wok .

Although today I have brought you a recipe that is a bit long, I assure you that it is easier to prepare than to read in one sitting, so I can only encourage you to prepare it. I can't think of a better plan for this summer that we are already here than an outdoor dinner with good company and these delicious bao buns.

Enjoy your meal!