Perfect Steeped White Chicken

This recipe is from Cheong Liew's cookbook MY FOOD. I have always followed this way of cooking the white chicken for the hainanese chicken rice and here is his quote:

A wonderfully versatile chicken dish: the meat can be used in salads, eaten cold or hot, or carved into slices in the traditional Chinese manner and served with a dipping sauce of soy, oil, shallot, ginger and spring onion. The meat is tender, succulent and delectable and the white and red parts are distinctly coloured. The poaching method using hot as opposed to simmering stock ensures that the breast meat is not tough or stringy, the great test for any whole chicken dish. The shallot and ginger offset the metallic taste which is sometimes present in plain poached chicken. A little red blood in the centre of the chicken bones is acceptable, otherwise the cooking time would be too long for the meat. To ensure a perfectly finished dish, the lifting and re-submerging of the chicken must be done without breaking the skin.

Drizzling soy sauce and warm peanut oil over the meat pieces will add to the flavour if you do not have time to prepare the dipping sauce. Peeled cucumber slices on the base of the plate adds colour and a taste and texture contrast. Country people, who eat mainly rice, use dipping sauces to add flavour to their meals.



Ingredients:
1.8 - 2.00 kg chicken
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 cm knob ginger
1 spring onion, pounded together with the ginger
1 tbsp rice wine
5 litres white chicken stock
1 slice ginger (extra)
1 spring onion stalk (extra)


Method:
Season the chicken cavity with salt, soy sauce, ginger, spring onion and rice wine and leave aside for 1 hour.

Fill a large pot with water and bring to the boil. It is essential that the chicken be fully immersed at all stages to ensure thorough cooking. Blanch the chicken, 1 minute at a time, a couple of times, carefully lifting it in and out of the pot under the wing, so as not to bruise the skin. This process of 'changing the water' washes the salted cavity of excess blood and impurities, and at the same time, seals the cavity. Remove the chicken, and refresh it in very cold water to firm the flesh and seal the skin.

In another pot, bring chicken stock to the boil with the slice of ginger and spring onion stalk then lower the chicken gently into the stock with a carving fork just under the chicken wing, taking care not to bruise the skin. Repeat the same lifting and submerging process used during the blanching process, this time to heat the cavity, which will be less cooked than the exterior. Then submerge the chicken completely in the stock.

Bring the stock to the boil, skimming off any impurities. Remove the pot from the stove and allow the chicken to steep in the stock for 25 minutes(30 mins for 2 kg chicken. Remove the chicken gently from the pot and place it on a serving dish to cool for 30 minutes. By this time the bird is fully rested and is ready for slicing.


DIPPING SAUCE

2 cm knob ginger
2 spring onions, white only
1 tbsp light soy sauce
t tbsp shallot oil

Pound ginger and spring onion to a paste, add soy sauce and shallot oil.

HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE

3 tbsp oil/margarine/chicken oil
1 tbsp chopped garlic and shallots
1/2 tbsp chopped ginger
3 cups rice, washed and drained
4 1/2 cups chicken stock(use the stock from the above)
1 tsp salt to taste

METHOD

Heat up oil, saute chopped garlic and shallot and ginger until fragrant. Add rice, salt and mix well. Dish into a rice cooker, add chicken stock and taste(add more salt if required). Leave to cook until dry and fluffy.

CHILLY SAUCE

10 red chillies,
5 chilly padi
3 cm young ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
dash of sesame oil
2 tbsp chicken oil(scoop from chicken stock)
2 tbsp lime juice

METHOD

Pound/blend red chillies, chilly padi and ginger.
Mix in the rest of the ingredients and adjust taste accordingly.

OYSTER SAUCE/BLACK SOYA SAUCE

Add some sesame oil to these 2 sauces above

White Chicken Stock

1 kg chicken bones cut into walnut size pieces
2 sticks celery
1 leek
1 onion
1 clove
1 sprig thyme
1 small bay leaf
5 parsley stalks
pinch of salt
10 white peppercorns

To remove blood and impurities, plunge the bones in boiling water. Bring the water back to the boil and remove the bones. Refresh them in cold water. Place the bones in a stockpot and cover with 3 litres of water. Bring to the boil and skim off any impurities. Simmer for 11/2 hours.

Add vegetables and herbs and cook for a further 30minutes. Ten minutes before the end of the cooking process, add the salt and peppercorns. Strain the stock through a fine sieve, then through a muslin cloth.

Chill, then, when you are going to use the stock, or freeze it, remove any remaining fat.

What Chef Liew said about this stock:

Because it has not been exposed to dry heat, white chicken stock does not brown. It is used for general purposes, such as soups and sauces and for dishes where color is important, such as vegetables, rice and cream or white colored sauces.

Serves