Air-fried sand ginger chicken thighs with ginger choy sum
Fragrant sand ginger chicken thighs with crisp skin and juicy meat, plus choy sum dressed in ginger juice — warming and great with rice.
- 37 min
- Serves 2
- Air-fry
- Easy
Why it suits you: Yang Deficiency means feeling the cold, with chilly hands and feet, and the warm-cold swings and muggy damp of Awakening of Insects weigh on the spleen's warmth. Sand ginger and chicken are both warming, and ginger juice takes the chill off the choy sum — warming without drying.
Method
Prep 15 min · Cook 22 min- 1Pat the chicken dry with kitchen paper and score the thickest parts. Grate the ginger: keep half for the marinade and squeeze the rest for its juice.
- 2Rub the chicken with the sand ginger powder, grated ginger, ½ tbsp soy sauce and ¼ tsp salt, and leave for at least 20 minutes.
- 3Preheat the air fryer to 190°C for 3 minutes. Cook the chicken skin-side down for 10 minutes, turn and cook for 8–10 minutes more, until the skin is crisp and golden and the juices run clear.
- 4Meanwhile, blanch the choy sum in boiling water with the oil and the rest of the salt for 1–2 minutes until bright green, then dress with the ginger juice and remaining soy sauce.
- 5Slice the chicken and serve hot with the choy sum and rice.
Chef's tips
- No air fryer? Roast in the oven at 200°C for about 25 minutes, turning once.
- Marinate the chicken the night before and it is ready to cook as soon as you get home.
The TCM view
Sand ginger is pungent and warm; it warms the middle, dispels damp and aids digestion. Chicken is sweet and warm and builds qi; ginger is pungent and warm and dispels cold. Choy sum is sweet and cool, so ginger juice balances it. Air-frying uses little oil, so the meal warms you without becoming too heating as spring yang rises.
