3 Ways to Handle a Whole Chicken
For the first time ever, I finally mustered up my courage to purchase a chicken from a live poultry vendor. I don't know why it took so long, since I live right next door to one. I walked in to a fluorescent lit room lined with squat metal cages stuffed with brown feathered chickens. I asked for a small one that was about 5lb (they charge $2.80/lb). I got it dead, plucked, and stuffed in a plastic bag several minutes later.
At home, I decided to use this chicken for three different recipes. First I will make the classic Chinese white cut chicken, then I will use the broth to boil a watercress soup, and finally I will soak the leftover chicken in rice wine overnight for drunken chicken. It makes for a great week of meals!
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| White cut chicken with shallot dipping sauce |
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| Clear watercress soup |
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| Drunken chicken |
White Cut Chicken 白切雞 (serve with shallot dipping sauce)
1 whole chicken
10-12 cups water
1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Once boiling, submerge entire chicken (with entrails) into the water.
3. Boil on low heat for 40 minutes.
4. Carefully remove chicken and set broth aside. Cut chicken into 2in pieces.
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Clear Watercress Soup
10-12 cups chicken broth leftover from making white cut chicken
2 bunches watercress
1. Bring chicken broth to a low boil.
2. Simmer watercress in broth for 2 hours.
Note: You can save the leftover watercress soup and boil it with another vegetable the following day. I've already made a tomato soup this week as well!
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Drunken Chicken
1 cup shaoxing rice wine
1 tsp brown sugar1/2 (or more) leftover white cut chicken
1. Boil shaoxing rice wine and brown sugar until all the alcohol evaporates.
2. Soak white cute chicken in wine overnight covered and in a cool place.
3. After 6-12 hours, pour out alcohol and refrigerate until serving.
