Cold Cut Chicken

This is a famous Cantonese dish, the finishing chicken comes out light, with tender meat and crispy skin. The dip for the chicken is packed with flavor which kicks the chicken up another notch. This recipe comes from Cantonese chef Hu's online posts.



Serves 4

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
Half of a chicken, about 2-3 pounds
2tablespoon finely sliced scallion
2 tablespoon finely diced ginger
8 tablespoon peanut oil or olive oil
20 cubes of ice
salt to taste

Tips:

1. In the ingredients I called for half of a chicken, you can certainly use a whole chicken instead. If using whole chicken, after cooking, just save the other half for another recipe, which I will post tomorrow using half of a cooked chicken with a numbing and spicy dressing.
2. The finer the scallion and ginger, the better. Just make sure they are sliced/diced and not chopped, as chopping would make them mushy.
3. It is very important to have the right water temperature when cooking the chicken, because we want to simmer the chicken so it has a tender texture.

Instruction:

1. In a deep soup pot that will fit half of a chicken or a whole chicken if using. Put in enough water that can cover the chicken, bring to a boil over high heat. While water is boiling, clean the chicken, if using a whole chicken, take out the necks and organs from chicken cavity, you can keep them if you like. When water is boiling, submerge the chicken into the water. Cover, cook over high heat for 3 minutes, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for about 20 minutes.
2. The water now should be around 175 to 185 degrees, another way to tell is there will be bubbles lazily rise to the surface. If using a whole chicken, every 5 minutes while simmering, take the chicken out of the water, and quickly dump the water inside chicken's cavity back in the pot, then put the chicken back in the pot. This is to help to keep the temperature inside and outside of the chicken the same.
   
3. The chicken is done when a chopstick can easily poke through the thign meat and there is no blood coming out.
   
4. While chicken is cooking, prepare the dip. Put the prepared scallion and ginger in a small bowl, add in salt to taste. Heat oil in a wok to 175 degrees over high heat and pour it into the small bowl.
   
5. During the last couple minutes of cooking, put ice and enough cold water to submerge the chicken in a deep bowl/pot.
6. When chicken is done, put chicken into the ice bath until chicken is cold. Cut up the chicken and serve it with the dip.