How to Make Zongzi, Chinese Sticky Rice Dumplings (Hokkien Bak Chang with Chicken)

Zongzi or Joong are Chinese sticky rice dumplings that we make at home during Dragon Boat Festival. We also sometimes hear people call them Chinese tamales. We asked Mum to show us how to make zongzi or Hokkien bak chang using chicken thighs instead of pork belly.

This is a regional style of joong that we don’t often see outside of Fujian and Malaysia. It’s savoury, and the meat inside is tender and extremely filling.

🥣 Tools you’ll need for our family zongzi recipe:
24-36 pcs of bamboo leaves - https://amzn.to/3Nniw3f
24 ft length of cotton string
Scissors
Big pot (for cooking Chinese tamales)

🍴Here are the zongzi ingredients you’ll need:

Protein
400g Chicken thighs (skinless, boneless)
1 tbsp fried shallots
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1/2 tsp five spice powder - https://amzn.to/3Xqz9Q8
1/4 tsp white pepper powder
1 tsp oyster sauce - https://amzn.to/3XjssiE
1 tsp chicken marinade - https://amzn.to/3Js4L1M (You can replace it with 1 tsp of dark soy sauce, 1 tsp sweet soy sauce, (kecap manis - https://amzn.to/44dSlCC ) and 1 tsp of chicken stock powder.
1 tsp cooking caramel - https://amzn.to/3CEPiHV
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp of chicken stock powder (optional) - https://amzn.to/3NGfGYj

📝 You can also use pork belly if you want to make the more traditional version of our zongzi recipe. The biggest difference is that you would want to slightly brown your pork belly in the pot. With chicken thighs, we don’t do this to avoid getting a rubbery texture.

📝 You can use the same marinade to also make a vegan zongzi using tofu instead but make sure to swap out the oyster sauce and chicken stock powder for a mushroom sauce and a veggie-based stock powder.

Stir-fried glutinous rice & black bean
500 g glutinous rice - https://amzn.to/3qMEBjS
Room temperature water
100g black bean - https://amzn.to/3Nnq1qP
2 tbsp neutral vegetable oil
2 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp five spice powder
1 tsp chicken stock powder
2 tsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
5 tbsp mushroom stock
1 tsp cooking caramel
1 tbsp sesame oil

Chestnuts
12 fresh chestnuts
1/2 tsp neutral vegetable oil
1/2 tsp chopped garlic
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
2-3 tbsp of water
1/2 tsp of cooking caramel

Mushrooms
6 pcs of shiitake mushrooms (cut in half)
1 tsp neutral vegetable oil
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/4 tsp five spice powder
1/4 tsp white pepper powder
1 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp cooking caramel
1 tsp light soy sauce
5 tbsp water

Salted egg yolk
12 pcs of salted egg yolk
📝 You can also make your own salted egg yolk at home. However, to save us some time cooking glutinous rice dumplings, Mum decided to use store-bought.

👨🏼‍🍳 You can find the full recipe with more cooking tips (and other types of Chinese sticky rice dumplings like Cantonese and Shanghai-style) on our website Honest Food Talks: https://www.honestfoodtalks.com/zongz...

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
00:25 Zongzi ingredients
00:31 Prepare to make zongzi
03:06 Preparing glutinous sticky rice
07:45 Stir fry chestnut
10:11 Stir fry mushrooms
12:37 Rehydrate dried bamboo leaves
14:26 How to wrap zongzi
18:26 Tie bak zhang
19:56 How to cook zongzi
21:59 How to store and reheat Chinese sticky rice dumplings
22:10 How to eat joong

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