Whole poached chicken plus three dish ideas

It seems the poached Asian chicken recipe I posted over a year ago is the most frequently viewed entry on the blog.

Because of this dishes popularity, and of course because I love oriental food, I’ve decided to do another one in a slightly different way, and to show a number of different things that can be cooked from it. Hopefully this will please the thrifty, greedy and chili addled among you (and I don’t know about you, but I fall in to all three categories).

Poaching a chicken like this is a fantastic way to cook it, not just because of the flavours you can pack in to the flesh, but letting the chicken cool slowly in the pan means you’re left with the most juicy and tender meat possible - a real delight to eat.

Click below for the three dishes from one bird…

1. Ginger, chicken and Szechuan peppercorn broth with rice noodles.
2. Rice paper rolls with chicken satay, aromatic herbs and crispy fried shallot.
3. Oriental crispy fried chicken with chillies and five spice.

For the whole poached chicken

• 1 whole medium chicken
• 4 carrots, cut roughly
• 2 medium golden onions, peeled and quartered
• 2 celery stalks, cut into batons
• 6 spring onions, top and tailed and cut in half
• A very large piece of ginger, roughly cut up
• A big piece of galangal, roughly cut up
• 10 star anise
• 10 cloves
• 1 tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 2 large green or red chilies, cut down the middle
• 1 shot of rice wine vinegar
• Shaosing rice wine or cooking sherry – 2 shots
• Enough cold water to cover the chicken by half and inch in the pan

Method

1. Combine all the ingredients in a very large saucepan and bring to the boil on a rapid heat.
2. Boil rapidly for 20 minutes, skimming any impurities that rise to the surface.
3. After 20 minutes turn the heat off, put the lid on the pan and leave to cook for 3 to 4 hours.
4. Preheat your oven to 180°C.
5. Remove the chicken from the pan leaving the liquor in the saucepan (the chicken will still be warm and perhaps a little hot in the centre) and remove all it skin and discard, then take the chicken apart with your hands removing the meat from the legs, wings and carcass, and separate the breasts from the carcass with a knife (so you remove them both in one piece).
6. Put the meat to one side and place the bones and carcass into a roasting tin, roast for 25 minutes turning over once, you’re looking for the bones to be turning golden.
7. While the chicken is roasting, strain the poaching liquor through a fine sieve into another saucepan.
8. Once the chicken bones are ready, remove them from the oven and add to the liquor, bring to the boil and then simmer for an hour.
9. Strain once more through a fine sieve, the liquor is now ready to use in a broth, or reduce down further to an even richer stock and then freeze or keep in the fridge.

By poaching the chicken and then roasting and simmering its carcass in the liquor once more you’ll create an excellent stock packed with aromatic chicken flavours.

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