Poached Chicken

A whole chicken cooked in water that never boils, then dropped into ice.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, about 1.5 kg
• 4 litres water
• a large thumb of ginger, sliced
• 4 spring onions, halved
• 2 teaspoons salt

Ginger and spring onion oil

• 4 tablespoons ginger, finely grated
• 4 spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil

Method

1. Bring the water to the boil with the ginger, spring onions and salt, then lower the chicken in breast-down.
2. The moment it returns to a simmer, turn the heat off completely and put the lid on. The water must never boil again: a boil shreds the breast and splits the skin, and the residual heat is enough.
3. Leave it 45 minutes without lifting the lid. Test by pulling a leg — it should give easily, and juices from the thigh should run clear.
4. Lift the chicken straight into a bowl of iced water and leave it 10 minutes. This is not for the sake of speed: the cold contracts the skin onto the flesh and gives it the slippery, slightly jellied layer that is the whole point.
5. Make the oil while it cools. Mix the grated ginger, spring onion and salt in a heatproof bowl.
6. Heat the oil until it just begins to shimmer and pour it over the ginger in one go. It should hiss hard; if it does not, the oil was too cool and the ginger will taste raw.
7. Drain the chicken, chop it through the bone, and spoon the oil over.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes