Velveting Meat With Cornstarch. Drain and dredge chicken pieces in corn starch or a 11 mixture of corn starch and flour. Cornstarch and tapioca starch are favorites for velveting whether its pork chicken or beef.
Velveting involves coating and marinating desired-sized pieces of meat in a mixture of cornstarch rice wine egg whites salt sugar and soy sauce for about 30-45 minutes. Tenderizing with baking soda generall makes for mushy meat. The meat is then bathed in barely simmering water or warm oil for 30-45 seconds just to the verge of being cooked through which is ideal for stir-frying.
Velveting meat is a common practice in Chinese stir-fries.
The Chinese technique of velveting meat is an oft-used yet underappreciated one. Tiong says the starch velveting method helps give meat extra flavour. For years I watched my mother velvet beef and chicken neither of us knowing what the term was but happy that the beef and chicken that we ate was soft in texture-I guess taking it for granted. Veleveting makes for a nice mouthfeel and might even tighten up the sauce a bit and give the sauce a bit more to cling to than would bare meat.
