original post 2016; updated 2024
Clean, Green Lean & Mean: Poached Chicken with Cherry Salsa |
The tender, yielding flesh provides a pillowy vehicle for a trio of bold sauces: piquant ginger and scallion, oyster or hoisin sauce and reduced salt soy sauce. Or you could go for a (fat-free) Cherry Salsa with Oriental spices.
Every family in Asia has a version of this dish; it's health-giving and easy to digest. Prepared several hours in advance, it's ideal for buffets; it also provides an excellent cold or room-temperature alternative to blazing hot meats just off the barbecue.
Chicken cooked in this way is more like a delicacy than boring 'rubber' chicken. And you end up with a glorious broth for freezing.
The chicken takes only minutes to prepare. And, in a fuel-conscious world, cooking time last only twenty minutes; the residual heat of the stock does the rest. Don't go over the resting time or hold back on the ice; the chicken can dry out otherwise.
This is not a frugal dish but it is a memorable one.
Cost: up to £10, depending on the chicken*
Serves: about 6-8 with sides
Ingred:
1 whole chicken 1-1 1/2 k/ 2 1/2-3 lbs, skinned (the best you can afford) ,
6 slices ginger 1/4 in/1/2 cm thick
6 spring onions, floppy leaves removed and bottoms trimmed, cut in three
6 whole peppercorns or 1/2 tsp coarse black pepper
a splash of dry sherry/white wine/white grape juice (opt)
English Bibbs (soft) lettuce
Ginger & green onion Sauce
3 tsp grated ginger
6 tbsp finely chopped white spring onions
3 tbsp groundnut/peanut oil
1 generous tsp grated garlic (opt)
(You'll need a pot large enough to cover the chicken with liquid; a vertical stock pot is ideal but any large stock pot will do.)
- Place chicken in stock pot; cover with water
- Bring to the boil; skim off froth; reduce heat to low
- Add green onions, ginger, pepper & sherry, if using
- The water should be bubbling slightly - too much toughens the fibres
- Cover with lid; simmer 20 min
- Turn off heat source; remove pot from heat, set aside & rest 1 hour; the chicken will carry on cooking
- Prepare a large bowl of iced water
- Remove chicken from broth and plunge into iced water; set aside
- Strain broth through a sieve; discard vegetables & pepper. Cool broth one hour then refrigerate overnight. (Scrape off fat layer on top; use as broth within 3 days or freeze.)
- Remove chicken from iced water; pat dry; discard cooling water
- Serve at room temperature
- Carve flesh (see How to...Carve a Chicken). Place leg meat underneath and breast meat on top in a pleasing mound.
- Serve with Ginger Scallion Sauce and Reduced Salt Soy Sauce and/or Oyster Sauce OR for a more westernised take, cherry salsa
- Ginger & Scallion Sauce: Put ginger & spring onions in heatproof bowl; heat oil until very hot and pour over - the ginger and spring onions will sizzle. Stir and pour into a serving bowl
- If you don't have a large enough pot, use the largest lidded pot you have. Cut chicken into sections: legs & breasts. Proceed as above but reduce cooking time by 5 mins.
- Recommended brands for lower-salt soy sauce: Amoy & Pearl River Bridge
*organic chickens are available at most major supermarkets for £12 (2021)
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This recipe has been developed by B Lee/ Bright Sun Enterprises and may not be reproduced without the author's written permission.
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