pepperhead212
Master Chef
I will be two days late with my Chinese New Year dinner - Spring festival ends tomorrow, but we will have this on Sunday (friends had an emergency last weekend, plus, I didn't have the chicken!).
I finally found whole chicken that did not say something like "possibly 6% added water"! This has gotten way too common in chicken and pork; haven't seen it in beef yet, but it will happen, I'm sure.
The recipe calls for about a 4 lb chicken, cleaned and patted dry, 1/4 c kosher salt, a 1 1/2" piece of ginger, cut into julienne, 2 tb Szechwan peppercorns, 4 scallions, smashed, and cut into 2" pieces, 1 tb sugar, and 1 tb rice wine, mixed up, and spread over the chicken, inside and out. The original recipe calls for setting the bowl at room temp for 3 days (!), but I decided to put it in the fridge. I'm sure it is still done that way, in areas without refrigeration!
Ingredients for salting chicken by pepperhead212, on Flickr
Salted chicken by pepperhead212, on Flickr
Now I wait for 3 days, spreading the dry marinade around a few times. The chicken gets steamed, then dried - traditionally hung a few hours, but I'll put it in front of a fan, which I'll have to dig out! I'll post the rest later.
I finally found whole chicken that did not say something like "possibly 6% added water"! This has gotten way too common in chicken and pork; haven't seen it in beef yet, but it will happen, I'm sure.
The recipe calls for about a 4 lb chicken, cleaned and patted dry, 1/4 c kosher salt, a 1 1/2" piece of ginger, cut into julienne, 2 tb Szechwan peppercorns, 4 scallions, smashed, and cut into 2" pieces, 1 tb sugar, and 1 tb rice wine, mixed up, and spread over the chicken, inside and out. The original recipe calls for setting the bowl at room temp for 3 days (!), but I decided to put it in the fridge. I'm sure it is still done that way, in areas without refrigeration!
Ingredients for salting chicken by pepperhead212, on Flickr
Salted chicken by pepperhead212, on Flickr
Now I wait for 3 days, spreading the dry marinade around a few times. The chicken gets steamed, then dried - traditionally hung a few hours, but I'll put it in front of a fan, which I'll have to dig out! I'll post the rest later.