Shanghai-style Poached Chicken

Any time someone on television is entertaining people, they look effortless, perfectly made up, and their kitchen is spotless and under control. Nigella doesn't even break a sweat. This recipe lets you do all that, through pre-preparation - cook the dish in the early afternoon, and leave it. It is a classy, cold dish you can serve at any dinner party.

This kind of chicken is poached in a 'master stock', in other words simmered for a short amount of time and then rested in a flavoured stock. The flavour goes into the chicken, while keeping it nice and moist. The original recipe I tried was Kylie Kwong's poached chicken recipe, which you can find here. My adaptation is for chicken breasts which are easily portioned per guest and not as fiddly to prepare.

Equipment:

• 1 large saucepan or pot with a lid
• A sharp small knife
• A chopping board

Ingredients: for the Chicken

• 1 chicken breast per person (minimum of 4 but can take more - this is good cold, so over cook)
• 1 750ml bottle of shaoxing rice wine or a dry sherry (or a chicken stock if you don't like alcohol)
• 1 bulb of garlic - you need 10-12 cloves for the chicken.
• 1 knob of fresh ginger the length of your longest finger
• 1 bunch of spring onions (scallions)
• 2 anise stars (for a trace of that five-spice asian flavour wihout dryness)
• 4 tbsp salt - sea salt is best (cut this in half if you are using stock, as it already contains salt)
• 1 tsp coarsely ground pepper or peppercorns
• Cold tap water.

Ingredients: for the Sauce

• Kecap Manis (sweet indonesian Soy Sauce, available in most supermarkets) or 
• Light Soy sauce + 2 cloves chopped garlic (for a more savoury option).

Preparation

1. Pour your bottle of shaoxing/sherry and stock into the pot
2. Peel 10-12 cloves of garlic from your bulb - yes you really need that much - and put into the pot.
3. Take the skin off the fresh ginger and roughly slice it into long pieces, and put it into the pot.
4. Take out the two thinnest  spring onions and put to one side. Cut off and discard the root section and the dark green part of the rest of your spring onions. Cut up the white & very light green part of the spring onions into little onion rings, and put them in the pot. 
5. Check your chicken breasts don't have any bloody bits or large amounts of fat - trim these off, as they will spoil the presentation of the chicken. Put the chicken breasts to one side.
6. Add the two star anise, salt and pepper into the pot.
7. Add enough cold water to fill the put up half way.

Cooking Method:

1. Put the pan onto the smallest ring on your stove. Bring the pot to the boil, and let it boil for about five minutes to let the flavours infuse.
2. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and watch until the bubbles susbside, and the top of the stock mix is simmering - that means the surface is trembling and the stock turning over, but no bubbles are coming to the top.
3. Put the chicken breasts in quickly one after the other.
4. Check to make sure the stock is still simmering. You may have to turn it up to get the temperature up, and then back down again as soon as it is simmering. This is the bit you need to pay attention to - don't boil the chicken!
5. Cook for exactly 14 minutes from this point - don't overcook!
6. Take the pot off the heat, and put it aside with the lid on. 
7. You now need to leave it for at least 3 hours for it to finish cooking/integrating the flavours - I usually leave it until I'm ready to serve up.

To serve:
Five minutes before serving, take the chicken out of the stock, drain, and arrange on a platter. Chop up your last 2 spring onions into more small onion rings and rinse them in a seive separating the spring onions into little rings. Choose which of your two optional sauces to serve with the chicken.

1. The easiest is to serve with Kecap Manis, an Indonesian sweet soy sauce. 
2. The slightly more tricky option is to put 1/2 cup of light soy sauce and 2 cloves of garlic (chopped up finely) into a small pot and bring to the boil. 

Drizzle your sauce over your chicken, and sprinkle your washed spring onions over the top.

Accompaniments:
Best served with fresh rice (jasmine or basmati are good options). For greens, try steamed bok choy or chairman mao beans. Fresh chinese pickled cucumbers are a great garnish.