Velveting is a critical Chinese cooking technique. Meat or seafood is marinated and pre-cooked in oil (or sometimes poached in boiling water). Then, the cook adds it to a stir-fry with other ingredients. In this post, we will teach you how to velvet chicken to yield the most tender and flavorful results for your favorite stir fries.
Looking to make beef, pork, or shrimp instead? Check out our detailed posts on:
Why Velvet Chicken?
Velveting is an essential step when preparing chicken breast (or even dark meat) for stir-frying.
Have you ever tried stir-frying chicken, only to have it appear (and taste) dry in the finished dish? Have you ever wondered how Chinese restaurants get their chicken to be so tender and moist-looking?
Velveting is the secret! It gives the chicken that silky texture, with retained moisture and flavor from the marinade. It also protects the chicken from the hot wok, yielding juicy chicken.
How to Slice Chicken for Stir-fries
Do you sometimes feel challenged when slicing chicken thinly to make a stir-fry? Trying to slice chicken uniformly when it is soft and slippery can be difficult even with a sharp knife!
I learned the answer the first time I worked in a Chinese restaurant kitchen as a prep guy. I cleaned and sliced vegetables, peeled shrimp, made egg rolls and yes, I sliced up many chicken breasts!
Before slicing them, I put them into the walk-in freezer until they were partially frozen––firm but not solid.
Once they are firm, they are very easy to slice into uniform, perfect slices. How’s that for a chef’s trick?
The Marinade
All restaurants (and most home cooks) velvet their chicken before making stir-fries, fried rice, etc. but they don’t all use the same method.
Baking Soda?
Some restaurants use baking soda as part of their marinade (you can tell by the crunchy or snappy texture of their chicken). In most cases, good quality chicken is already tender, which is why we don’t recommend adding any baking soda.
On rare occasions, you may get a tough chicken breast––a condition called “woody breast,” caused by hardened muscle fibers. Nobody really knows what causes it, but if you’ve ever had a stringy or tough chicken breast, you may have experienced it. That said, if your chicken is a bit more fibrous than usual, take care to cut across the grain, similar to slicing beef.
Egg White?
We’ve seen other sources on the Internet suggest adding egg white to velveting marinades. This is unnecessary. Your return on that investment just isn’t worth the trouble. In my experience, most Chinese cooks do not do this.
So What Do We Recommend?
To marinate chicken for stir fries, we use a simple mixture of water, oil, cornstarch, and a flavor agent like soy sauce or oyster sauce. Other ingredients, like Shaoxing wine or sesame oil, may also be layered in.
So What Is Oil Velveting?
Oil velveting is a common practice Chinese restaurants use as a first cooking step. The equivalent Chinese phrase, zǒu yóu (走油) in Mandarin or jau yau in Cantonese, means “passing through oil.” It essentially refers to deep-frying.
We recommend searing the chicken in a hot wok, as opposed to deep-frying. Not only is it easier, searing really brings out the chicken flavor and creates an ever-so-light crust. This crust eventually melts when your chicken is added back into your sauce, creating extra flavor. The result is a silky mouthfeel and a flavor bomb in each bite!
Can I Blanch the Chicken Instead?
For those of you who want to reduce fat in your diet or simply want that delicate taste of Cantonese cooking, you can blanch your chicken in boiling water.
When blanching chicken, you may want to add a pinch of salt or more soy sauce or oyster sauce to the marinade, since some of that seasoning will be washed away while cooking.
How to Velvet Chicken: Instructions
First, slice your chicken into 1 ½ to 2 inch pieces, about ¼ inch thick. Remember to slice across the grain, especially if using chicken breast. The chicken breast in this photo was partially frozen for easy slicing.
Add the water and soy sauce (or oyster sauce) to the chicken in a medium bowl, and mix until the chicken is well-coated.
The small amount of water moisturizes the chicken. Adding water also helps the soy sauce or oyster sauce to further tenderize, penetrate and add an extra layer of flavor to the chicken.
Set aside for 5-10 minutes. In that time, most of the liquid will be absorbed into the chicken.
Add the cornstarch and vegetable oil and mix again until everything’s incorporated and the chicken is uniformly coated. For the best results, let the chicken sit for 15 to 20 minutes to marinate.
To sear, place your wok over high heat. When it starts to smoke lightly, add a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil to coat the surface of the wok. Add the chicken in one layer, and allow to sear for 20 seconds.
Stir-fry until the chicken has turned opaque, and remove from the wok.
If you would rather blanch your chicken, add the chicken to a wok filled with boiling water. When it turns opaque, cook for an additional 10 seconds (the chicken will be cooked 80% through). Then, remove from the wok.
Remember, in both scenarios, you will be cooking the chicken again in your stir-fry, so avoid overcooking it during the pre-cook process!
Use This Velveting Technique in these Chicken Recipes:
- Chicken with Black Bean Sauce
- Kung Pao Chicken
- Chicken and Broccoli with Brown Sauce
- Cashew Chicken
- Chicken and Chinese Broccoli Stir Fry
- Moo Goo Gai Pan: Mushroom and Chicken Stir Fry
- Bourbon Chicken
- Spicy Chicken Stir-fry (Firebird Chicken)
How to Velvet Chicken for Stir-Fry
Ingredients
- 12 ounces boneless skinless chicken breast (or thighs, 340g)
- 3 tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce (or 1 tablespoon oyster sauce)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Instructions
- First, slice your chicken into 1 ½ to 2 inch pieces, about ¼ inch thick. Remember to slice across the grain, especially if using chicken breast.
- Add the water and soy sauce (or oyster sauce) to the chicken in a medium bowl, and mix until the chicken is well-coated. Set aside for 5-10 minutes. In that time, most of the liquid will be absorbed into the chicken.
- Add the cornstarch and vegetable oil and mix again until everything’s incorporated and the chicken is uniformly coated. For the best results, let the chicken sit for 15 to 20 minutes to marinate.
- To sear, place your wok over high heat. When it starts to smoke lightly, add a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil to coat the surface of the wok. Add the chicken in one layer, and allow to sear for 20 seconds. Stir-fry until the chicken has turned opaque, and remove from the wok.
- To blanch, add the chicken to a wok filled with boiling water. When it turns opaque, cook for an additional 10 seconds (the chicken will be cooked 80% through). Then, remove from the wok.
- Remember, in both scenarios, you will be cooking the chicken again in your stir-fry, so avoid overcooking it during the pre-cook process!
Love it because I upgraded my cooking. 🙏🏽
Hi Franklyn, excellent, one of our goals was to help share knowledge to upgrade everyone’s cooking because life is just too short ;-)
Thank you so much for teaching this technique! I tend to stay away from using chicken breast because of how easily it dries up, but this changes everything. I’ve made several of your dishes and they’ve come out perfect every time. I must confess the dishes that called for chicken breast I’ve subbed out for boneless skinless chicken thighs, but I’ll be trying them out again with chicken breast.
Hi Kristine, so happy to hear you’re using this technique – it really is a game changer :)
The velveting technique is the best cooking tip I have received in maybe ever!
I first tried it on sirloin strips for fajitas, and they were the most tender ever. The mixture did not affect the taste of the meat at all.
I next used sirloin to make grillades and grits and forgot about the velveting step. You may have already guessed that the meat, while good, was not as tender and “silky” as it was in the fajitas, even though grillades require long, slow cooking.
I am now noting this technique on any dish using strips of meat, less tender meat, and anything involving sauteeing or stir frying.
Happy cooking!
Hi Janice, Thanks for your sharing your comment and experiences using the technique! Check out our other article on how to prepare beef for stir fry, which focuses on beef preparation.
Awesome tip.
Sometimes I use frozen fish. And freezing fish does something to the meat so it can’t retain the water. Especially Cod. So I always end up with a bad texture. I have tried every method of thawing to no avail.
Then I tried the starch velveting you describe, and it works wonders. Almost like the fish had not been frozen. Highly recommend :-)
Hi Kristian, yes, using this velveting technique is great for fish as you have already learned :) Add a teaspoon or two of mijiu (clear rice wine) to the marinade. It’s a game changer for fish and especially true for codfish.
Iv been trying this few times before with the egg white process (very annoying )
i must say that your Recipe is the best and beyond great ! easy to make and very tendar thank you for sharing !!!
Thank you for your kind words, Ronen, glad we could help!
This recipe resulted in, hands down, the most delicious chicken I’ve ever cooked. It’s such a relief to no longer be facing a lifetime of dry chicken in my stir-fry. Can’t wait to try the beef velveting technique, too. Thank you so much!
Hi William, so glad that you found us and are using this chicken velveting method!
I used these instructions to prepare my chicken before tossing it in a Thai curry. I’ve always had tough chicken strips in my curries and this recipe helped me finally have tender chicken! Thanks so much for the recipe. I had a very hot cast iron pan that was used in the place of a wok, and everything came out perfectly :)
Hi Lauren, sounds like a success all around!
Are you suppose to let the chicken marinate a second time after you add the cornstarch and oil? If so, for how long?
Hi Kris, yes, the first 5 to 10 minutes lets the chicken absorb the liquids. For the best results, let the chicken sit for 15 to 20 minutes to marinate. This step was mentioned in the post but was missing in the recipe card directions so I added it. Thanks again for your question which pointed out the omission!
Tasted good, nice texture. But it did stick a little bit. After adding the vegetables I was able to deglaze the wok, so it wasn’t a real mess, but I’m not sure if this was how it should have been. I think my wok is seasoned properly, because vegetables don’t stick.
I have followed the instructions on the page you referred to. Perhaps I should add a little less cornstarch?
Well, I’ve tried it again, but with a few differences with regard to my previous attempt.
First off, I’ve made a way smaller batch, just for myself instead of for the family. This time I had 7 ounces of chicken breast. I adjusted the marinade recipe for this amount, but did stick to the ratios, except for the oil, because I never use vegetable oil.
First I scrambled an egg and took it out; didn’t stick at all, and it was almost instantly cooked, so the wok was very hot. Then I added the chicken and it was almost non stick. I was better able to keep the temperature in the wok very high, so I think my previous batch was too big causing too much of a temperature drop. I took out the chicken, finished with some vegetables and sauce and eventuelly put everything back. After stir frying the wok was pretty clean.
And lastly, I noticed that I ended up using relatively double the amount of fat (I stir fry with beef dripping). Now I used 30 grams for myself (approximately 2 TBSP), whereas I used 60 grams for my family of 4 (approx 4 TBSP). I don’t think 2 TBSP is an excessive amount, so I probably didn’t use enought the first time.
So I think that my temperature was too low the first time and that I had used too little fat.
Hi Stefan, thanks for sharing all of the information. Heating up the wok to smoking temperature and adding more cooking oil/grease is a great help if not essential. An important factor is to preheat the wok to remove all the moisture from the carbon steel and lubricating it with the cooking oil before stir-frying. You can read more about the method in Judy’s post on the secret to stir frying without sticking.
Also, while we recommend hydrating the chicken with water in the marinade, the chicken should not be sitting in any liquid. It should only have a light coating, and as you learned, the more oil you add, the less chance you have for the chicken to stick. I also agree that even if you do have some sticking during the precooking of the chicken, de-glazing helps and adds a whole lot of flavor to your dish. Happy cooking!
Very good instuctions
Thanks Tony! :)