Samgyetang

A whole small chicken stuffed with soaked glutinous rice and sewn shut, so the rice cooks inside it rather than in the broth.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

• 2 small chickens, about 500 g each, or 1 of 1 kg
• 100 g glutinous rice
• 2 fresh ginseng roots, or 4 dried
• 6 cloves garlic
• 4 dried jujubes
• 2 chestnuts, peeled, optional
• 1.5 litres water
• 4 spring onions
• fine salt and black pepper, at the table

Method

1. THE CHICKEN IS STUFFED WITH RICE AND SEWN OR SKEWERED SHUT, and the point is that the rice cooks INSIDE the bird and not in the broth. It swells, takes up the fat and the ginseng from within, and comes out as a dense savoury filling you spoon out at the table. Left open, the rice escapes within ten minutes, thickens the whole pot to porridge and clouds a broth that should be clear -- and the bird arrives empty.
2. A COCKTAIL STICK AND A LOOP OF STRING IS ENOUGH. Two skewers across the cavity, or the legs tied together over it. It does not need surgery, it needs to not fall open.
3. AND THE RICE IS SOAKED AN HOUR AND THE CAVITY ONLY TWO THIRDS FILLED. Glutinous rice swells a great deal. Packed full, it bursts the skin along the breastbone and the whole purpose is lost.
4. A SMALL BIRD, NOT A ROASTING CHICKEN. Five hundred grams each, one per person. A large chicken needs so long that the breast is dry and stringy before the thigh is done, and this is a dish you eat with a spoon straight from the pot.
5. IT IS SIMMERED, NEVER BOILED, and it is NOT SALTED in the pot. A gentle simmer keeps the skin on the bird and the broth clear. Salt and pepper go on the table in a little dish, and each piece of chicken is dipped as it is eaten -- which is also how you get a bland broth and a seasoned mouthful at the same time.
6. Rice rinsed and SOAKED 1 HOUR, then drained.
7. Chickens rinsed, and any loose fat at the cavity pulled out.
8. Each cavity filled TWO THIRDS with the soaked rice, a ginseng root, 2 garlic cloves and a jujube pushed in with it.
9. The cavity CLOSED with two cocktail sticks, or the legs tied together over it.
10. Set in a deep pot that fits them snugly, and the water poured in to come just over them.
11. Brought slowly to a simmer and any foam skimmed off.
12. The remaining garlic, jujubes, chestnuts and the spring onions added.
13. Simmered gently, lid on, 50 MINUTES to 1 hour, until a leg pulls away easily. NEVER boiled.
14. The surface fat skimmed, or a sheet of kitchen paper laid flat on it and lifted off.
15. Each bird lifted into a deep bowl with its broth poured over, with salt and pepper on the table for dipping. The sticks pulled out at the table and the rice spooned out of the cavity.

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 South Korea · All recipes