Steamed Buns with Marinated Chicken Thigh

Preparation

Make red bell pepper paste for orange dough

Prep your bell peppers by chopping in half and separating flesh from inner core, discard white parts and stem. Roughly chop the bell peppers and place into a pot with olive oil on medium heat. Cook until soft, about 10-15 minutes, stirring every so often and making sure not to burn.

When bell peppers are soft, move to a blender and blend until smooth. Return the mixture to pot on medium heat. Stir mixture often as it starts to thicken. You'll know it's done when it has become a dark red, thick paste. Set aside when done until ready to use.

Mix dough

To make the orange dough, activate yeast with 3/4 cups warm water (between 95°-115°F) for 5 minutes. While waiting, place flour, salt, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and red pepper paste into a mixing bowl. Pour activated yeast/water into the flour and mix until it forms clumps. Then, knead with your hands for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth like a baby's butt. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside. Repeat process in a separate mixing bowl with white dough ingredients. Proof both doughs for 1 hour.

Make filling

In a food processor, grind chicken thighs until it's in small chunks and put into mixing bowl. Cut the peach into half and microplane into bowl to get a smooth puree. Add rest of the filling ingredients and mix continuously until homogenous and sticky. Cover and set aside in fridge until your ready to fold buns.

Make wrappers

Lightly dust a work surface with flour. When your dough is ready, take out both colors and cut each in half. Keep a half of each color to use, while storing the other half in plastic wrap to keep from drying out. Roll orange and white half into two cylinders, about the size and shape of a very large sausage. Cut each cylinder into 5 equal pieces, they should look like marshmellows. Then, turn each piece cut side up and with the palm of your hand, press down onto it to flatten to make a roughly flattened circle. Dust each side with flour and then with a rolling pin, flatten to create a circular wrapper to desired thickness, about an 1/8 of an inch - not too thin but not too thick. Repeat with the rest of your marshmellow dough pieces until you have a bunch of wrappers. Make sure to flour each wrapper as you roll them out and then cover with plastic wrap so they don't dry out.

Fold and seal buns

You can fold the baos however you'd like and have fun with it! For a classic circular fold, place a spoonful of meat in the center of your flattened dough. Then pleat around the meat with small fold, pushing the meat down as the wrapper starts to close in around it. Seal the bao and set aside.

Steam and serve

In a bamboo steamer place parchment paper underneath each bun (or get steamer liners with holes in them) and place bao on top. Place your steamer with bun on top of a shallow pot with boiling water. Steam for 15 minutes until cooked through, serve.

Storage tips

Dough storage — If you're like me and get tired of making buns after the 10th one, you can save your proofed dough for later by wrapping in plastic wrap and storing in the freezer. Whenever you want to make buns again, just defrost and give it a little knead, and it's as good as fresh.

Bun storage — Buns store great in the freezer! Just cook them in a steamer, cool down for a hot sec, then put them straight in the freezer in a ziploc bag. When ready, just reheat them in a steamer for 5-10 minutes until cooked through, or microwave each bun wrapped in a wet paper towel for 1 minute.