Adam Liaw grew up in Adelaide and worked as a lawyer for many years before he became a MasterChef winner, author and an ambassador for good nutrition.

He now lives with his family in Sydney and has just released his fourth cookbook, Adam Liaw’s Asian Cookery School, which aims to teach readers about the ingredients and techniques of simple traditional Asian home cooking.

It features 80 recipes for dishes such as home-made dumplings, pad Thai, crispy skin chicken and green tea ice cream, with each chapter offering lessons in flavour, texture, using a wok and different ingredients.

Here, Liaw shares his recipe for steamed ginger chicken.

“This home-style dish is the kind of thing my family ate all the time when I was growing up, and it’s easy to see why it’s a firm favourite – it’s simple to make, fast and quite delicious,” he writes.

‘Adam Liaw’s Asian Cookery School’ by Adam Liaw, $49.99, published by Hachette Australia.

Steamed Ginger Chicken

Ingredients

1 tbsp grated ginger
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp cornflour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
2 thick spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped
600g chicken thigh fillets, cut into 5cm chunks
¼ cup coriander leaves, to serve

Method

Combine the ginger, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, cornflour, salt, sugar, spring onions and chicken pieces in a large bowl. Mix well, and set aside for at least 15 minutes.

Arrange the marinated chicken in a single layer on a heatproof serving plate that will fit inside your bamboo steamer. Bring plenty of water to the boil in a saucepan or wok under the steamer, place the plate of chicken inside the steamer, cover and steam for 10 minutes.

Remove the plate from the steamer and allow to stand for a minute. Scatter the chicken with the coriander and serve immediately.

Notes:

The chicken will release flavourful juices during cooking, so use a shallow dish with a lip to catch them. Be careful not to spill the juices when taking the dish out of the steamer.

To grate the ginger, peel it by scraping the skin away with a teaspoon and grate it as finely as possible using a Japanese grater, a rasp grater or the bumpy side of a box grater.

Coriander has flavour through the entire plant, from the roots to the leaves, and it’s all edible. If you want a stronger coriander flavour in the dish, mix chopped coriander stems and roots with the chicken and steam it all together, scattering the leaves over to serve.

Serves 4