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If you are looking for new ways of cooking leftover turkey from Turkey Day, I have something exotic that you might want to try out. I cooked mine the Malaysian way and the end result is a pot of steaming hot “Chai Buey” (菜尾).
Literally means leftovers, Chai Buey is a dish that is quite common in Chinese-Malaysian homes, especially after festivities such as Chinese New Year, wedding or birthday banquets.
The key ingredient of Chai Buey is usually some sort of meat—roast pig, barbeque pork, duck, or chicken. All the leftovers from the festivities (including but not limited to the meat) are then stewed in a big pot with mustard green (芥菜), vegetables, and other edibles.
The end result is a hearty soup with intense flavor and lots of hidden treasures (think leftover Abalone from that wedding banquet!).
While meat is the centerpiece of this dish, the secret ingredient is Asam Gelugor/Asam Keping (tamarind skins). These tamarind skins enhance the sour flavor that is signature to this dish and make the soup extra tangy and savory.
If you don’t like what you see (I know, this dish is so not photogenic!), head over to Simply Recipes for a list of turkey leftovers recipes.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 48 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Chai Buey
Ingredients
- Leftover meat (roast pig, barbeque pork, duck, chicken, or turkey)
- 6 dried red chilies (soaked with warm water and then cut into pieces)
- 4 pieces Asam Gelugor (tamarind skins)
- 1 cup tamarind juice
- 3 teaspoons taucheo (fermented yellow bean sauce)
- 5 medium bowls of water
- 4 stalks mustard green (cut into pieces)
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- In a pot, bring the water to boil. Add the leftover meat and boil for 15 minutes. Add in the dried red chilies, Asam Gelugor, tamarind juice, taucheo (fermented yellow bean sauce), and mustard green and simmer for 45 minutes.
- Add salt to taste. Serve hot with steamed white rice.
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Hi there Bee,
What if I couldn’t get a fresh Mustard Green leaves (currently in Australia and stay nothing near to any Asian grocery area).. can I substitute with the pickled one instead?
Yes you can!
This dish need lots of roasted pork parts and roasted duck for it to taste nice. my neighbor used to have small shrine on her house, after every religious occasion she will be left with lots of leftovers such as roasted pig legs, pig head, pig bones, tails etc and roasted duck and chicken. she would cook all the leftovers in a very big pot and give it to all her neighbors. it is very nice, it is even nicer if you let it in the fridge for tomorrow.. the taste will be richer.
the ingredients that i can see in the chai boey are just assam gelugor, dried chilies, and garlic but it’s very delicious.
This isn’t really chai boey but a very delicious ‘khong assam’. Not according to me but from an authority of nyonya cuisine – my grandma who is a nyonya and who was once in charge of the communal nyonya kitchen in her little nyonya neighbourhood. It is also the base to make chai boey. To make a real nyonya chai boey, add all the other leftovers like ‘too tor thng’, ‘jiu hu char’, ‘chap chai char’, ‘lor bak’, ‘chap chai thng’, ‘bang kwan char’, etc. It is somewhat a family staple growing up in a large nyonya family and community.
Thumbs up on all your other nyonya dishes though! My grandma approves!
My late grandmother was a Nyonya, too. Khong Asam is an entirely different dish, and certainly without the leftovers and the vegetables. This is what we call chai buey.
Hmmm… Perhaps in Penang this is termed differently then. Some call this Assam Chye. I swear this is what we (from my late great-grandma to grandaunts and all) call a version of Khong Assam. They come from generations of nyonya village ‘head chef’ and get rather annoyed when others call this chai buey. They are insistent that real chai buey must have jiu hi char and the works.
Whatever the name, this is one ultra delicious dish!
In my family, this is called chai buey and yes chai buey sometimes has chiu hu char. Khong assam is a separate dish and can be made with pork ribs or fish but definitely no kua chai.
CP – Eeeerrrr, I guess I will have to change the title to Leftover Turkey, Fujian Style. ;)
I think it’s a Chinese invention, but the Malaysian version is improvised with the use of tamarind skins and dried chilies. Do Taiwanese use them for this dish?
It’s a Taiwanese dish! XD
Which probably means it originated in the Fujian province. =b
– Chubbypanda
Suanne – I know what you mean. I agree with Audrey, the best meat is Siu Yoke or BBQ pork.