Should I put salt in the chicken stew at home in advance or wait until the pot is cooked?

Answer the question first: salt should be added to the stew.

When it comes to stew, many friends will think of Guangdong. Indeed, Cantonese people like to stew soup, and the soup stewed by Cantonese people is widely praised everywhere.

Stewed soup is actually very particular. Cantonese stew is popular because of the word "exquisite". Below, I will share with you the "stress" of Cantonese stew.

"Stew" means that in Guangdong, almost every household pays attention to stew soup, except Chaoshan area in eastern Guangdong.

First of all, I don't mean to belittle Chaoshan people here, because I am a Chaoshan person and grew up in northern Guangdong.

Let's talk about the digression first: why do you say except Chaoshan area? Because I go back to Chaoshan for a few days every year, I have never eaten Chaoshan stew.

Get to the point: Guangdong people's stew is different from that of northerners. In the eyes of Cantonese, northerners boil ingredients in water for a long time, which is called "stew". Guangdong people, on the other hand, put stew in a pot and stew it in water, which is called "stew". In the eyes of northerners, "stew" can only be called "pot" in the eyes of Cantonese.

"Stewing Time" Many Cantonese people have their own unique views on stewing soup.

The time of stewing soup, in the conventional practice, must be stewed for 4 hours before it can be called stewing soup.

Soup, simmered for 4 hours, can be used as the main ingredient and other auxiliary materials of meat, and the essence of its contents can be fully released and dissolved in the soup. The soup made in this way is called "Guangdong stew soup".

Instead of the soup that has been stewed for 4 hours, it is tasteless. After seasoning with salt, it is only salty.

If there is any objection, we can demonstrate this point with a small detail: no matter what brand of rice cooker you buy, as long as you use it according to the instructions, you will find that the rice cooker has a fast stewing stall and a slow stewing stall.

It takes 2 hours for the rice cooker to stew quickly. In the slow stew stall in the rice cooker, the stew time is 4 hours. This design can't be much ado about nothing.

The proportion of "stew" Cantonese stew soup is very particular about the choice of ingredients. The proportion of meat and water, plus the proportion of ingredients, must be properly mastered.

① the ratio of meat to water

Put the meat in a saucepan, add the ingredients, and add a little less than all the soup. This way, the stewed soup will be fragrant and sweet.

② Proportion of meat and ingredients

Meat-based soup, meat must be more than ingredients, ingredients only play the role of accessories. For example: stewed chicken with mushrooms, stewed chicken with American ginseng, stewed chicken with clear ingredients, etc., with more meat and less material.

It's not a meat-based soup. You can't put too much meat. You must highlight the taste of other ingredients. For example: stewed ribs with pueraria lobata, stewed ribs with bitter gourd, etc. Spareribs are just auxiliary materials, you don't need to put too much.

"stew" pays attention to meat stew soup and large pieces of meat. Generally, the meat in stew will be chopped into large pieces. Stew for 4 hours, the meat will not rot and the soup will be clear and transparent.

When the meat is blanched, the taste of the soup will fade. If you want to drink delicious and sweet stew, you must not blanch the meat. Cold water must be added to the stew to make it warm up gradually, so that the stew is delicious enough.

In order to season the stew, salt must be put at the end. If you put salt first, the soup won't taste good after stewing for a long time.

There are many recipes for stewing soup. The most common recipes in home cooking are:

① Stewed chicken soup

Stewed chicken with American ginseng, stewed chicken with mushrooms, stewed chicken with chestnuts, stewed chicken with five fingers peach, stewed chicken with Qingbuliang, stewed chicken with Ganoderma lucidum, stewed chicken with Dendrobium, stewed chicken with fresh abalone and so on.

② Stewed ribs

Braised ribs with kudzu root, stewed ribs with yam, stewed ribs with bitter gourd, stewed ribs with gouqi head, stewed ribs with raw and cooked, stewed ribs with corn and carrots, etc.

Cantonese stews not only pay attention to the harmony of taste, but also make delicious and healthy stews with appropriate herbs according to different seasons and climates.