How to Velvet Chicken Master Class! | The Woks of Life

The Woks of Life June 20, 2025
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The Woks of Life

@thewoksoflife1

About

We are a family of four: parents Bill & Judy, and daughters Sarah & Kaitlin Leung. The Woks of Life is our way of sharing our recipes & travels with each other and documenting our family's story through food. We started food blogging in 2013, and since then, we've helped generations young and old reclaim Chinese home cooking! Our blog has become a robust online community and is recognized as the authority on Chinese cooking in English. You can find our 1,200+ recipes, ingredients glossaries, and how-to guides on wok cooking at thewoksoflife.com. We also wrote a New York Times bestselling, James Beard Award nominated cookbook! We share 100+ of our favorite home-cooked and restaurant-style Chinese recipes in ”a very special book” (J. Kenji López-Alt, author of The Food Lab and The Wok). “The Woks of Life did something miraculous: It reconnected me to my love of Chinese food and showed me how simple it is to make my favorite dishes myself.”—KEVIN KWAN, author of Crazy Rich Asians

Video Description

In this video we're talking all about how to prepare your chicken for stir fry—namely the right way to cut your chicken and the velveting technique to achieve the most tender and tasty chicken! Velveting is a time-tested Chinese cooking technique used by restaurant chefs and home cooks alike. We compare velveted and unvelveted chicken to show whether it really makes a difference and give you the low down on what these confusing terms "oil velveting" and "water velveting" mean! Which do we prefer? Well the answer is it depends! You'll know everything you need to know about velveting chicken after you watch this! Full post on how to prepare chicken for stir fry—with detailed velveting + marinade recipe here! https://thewoksoflife.com/how-to-velvet-chicken-stir-fry/ Our Restaurant style Chicken with Mixed Vegetable stir fry https://thewoksoflife.com/chicken-mixed-vegetables/ Chinese stir fry sauce Brown: https://thewoksoflife.com/stir-fry-sauce-recipe/ White: https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-white-sauce/ 0:00 Intro 0:29 What is Velveting? 1:03 Cutting chicken for stir fry 2:22 Do I need baking soda to velvet chicken? 3:37 Velveted vs. Unvelveted Chicken 5:27 Oil velveting chicken (shortcut!) 6:18 Stir fry (Brown sauce) 8:10 Stir fry (White sauce) 9:35 Taste test Thanks for watching! - Bill, Judy, Sarah, and Kaitlin ❤️👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 Check out our NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING cookbook: https://thewoksoflife.com/the-woks-of-life-cookbook-now-available/ For all of your questions on Chinese ingredients: https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-ingredients-glossary/ For more tips on Chinese cooking methods: https://thewoksoflife.com/category/how-to/cooking-methods/ For The Woks of Life's complete wok guide: https://thewoksoflife.com/wok-guide/ Thinking of buying a wok? These are the best! https://thewoksoflife.com/best-wok-to-buy/ Got questions on how to maintain your wok? (See here if you have a rusty wok!) https://thewoksoflife.com/how-to-season-a-wok/ Stay connected! https://www.instagram.com/thewoksoflife https://www.pinterest.com/thewoksoflife1/ https://www.facebook.com/thewoksoflife/ Music: epidemicsound.com About The Woks of Life: Since its founding in 2013, The Woks of Life has become the #1 online resource for approachable, creative, authentic Chinese recipes in English. Through their popular recipe site and diverse social media community, Bill, Judy, Sarah and Kaitlin Leung share inspiring recipes and their family’s culinary genealogy with millions of home cooks. With the debut of their highly-acclaimed, New York Times bestselling cookbook The Woks of Life: Recipes to Know and Love from a Chinese American Family in 2022, the family has served up even more of their sought-after recipes and culinary stories to hungry fans and new audiences. The Leungs have been featured in numerous press outlets, including Magnolia Network’s Family Dinner with Andrew Zimmern, Food Network’s Family Meal, as well as Bon Appetit, Good Morning America, NPR, The New York Times, and many more.

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