... deserves another, and whether using a gentle cooking method or frying on high, spluttering heat, chicken is a versatile and flavoursome choice.
I have always wanted to keep my own chickens. Black orpingtons, to be precise. Attractive fat hens, they are excellent layers with quality meat, but frankly the idea of killing one to eat doesn’t appeal – Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall I am not. I am happy enough to buy one, instead.
If I am going to cook a chicken, it’s a fat free-range bird that I want. A whole bird will leave me enough to make sandwiches for a school lunch, but if I use chicken pieces or breasts the result will be a quick dinner.
“White-cooking” is possibly the best technique for cooking a chicken, as it’s so gentle. Plunging the chicken into iced water chills it quickly, setting the juices just under the skin, which will tighten up. Do this and the chicken will be moist, tender and flavoursome. A warning, though: this method means that areas of the chicken meat, particularly around the bone, are pink and look raw. Don’t panic. It is cooked and perfectly safe to eat.
White-cooked chicken with lychee and cucumber salad
1 free-range chicken, about 2kg
6 litres of water
2 spring onions
3cm piece of fresh ginger
6 garlic cloves
ice for chilling the chicken
Remove any fat from inside the chicken. Rinse the chicken under cold running water then dry it inside and out with absorbent kitchen paper. Pour the water into a deep saucepan. Slice the spring onions and the ginger, then smash the garlic cloves with the flat side of a kitchen knife. Add to the water and bring to a gentle simmer.
Gently lower the chicken, breast-side down into the stock. Bring it back to a simmer and skim the surface carefully to remove any scum. Once the stock is simmering, cover the saucepan with a well-fitting lid and cook for exactly 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, do not remove the lid, and leave it to sit for an hour.
Place the ice in a deep container large enough to hold the chicken completely submerged and pour in just enough water to get the ice moving around. Carefully lift the chicken from the stock, taking care not to tear the skin. Drain the liquid from the cavity and plunge the chicken into the iced water breast-side down. Place the bowl in the refrigerator and leave for an hour. Remove the chicken from the ice and leave to drain.
Remove the legs and separate the drumsticks from the thigh through the joint. Using a heavy knife, cut the thigh and leg into round pieces through the bone. It will make a resounding crunch. Remove the 2 breast fillets with your fingers, keeping the jellied juices intact under the skin. Slice the breast meat into diagonal pieces. Arrange on a large platter with the salad and serve.
Serves 4.
Lychee and cucumber Salad
1 small cucumber
500g can of lychees
2 small red chillies
small bunch of coriander
zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and black pepper
Cut the cucumber in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon. Slice the cucumber into 2cm chunks then place in a bowl. Drain the syrup from the lychees, then halve them and add to the cucumber. Seed and chop the chillies, pull the leaves from the coriander and mix with the cucumber. Mix the lemon zest and juice with the oil, season with salt and pepper, then toss with the cucumber and lychees. Serve with the chicken.
I LOVE VISITING ASIAN food stores where among the baskets of strange green things, glass jars of dried tangerine peel, white tapioca root, sticks of wooden licorice root and dried mushrooms, you will find small shrink-wrapped bags of fermented black beans. These shrivelled little beans are preserved in salt, and they provide an interesting flavour when added to braises and stews. Serve with steamed rice.
Black Bean Chicken with Spring Onions
400g free-range chicken thigh fillets
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp fermented black beans
1 tbsp dry sherry
1 small onion
2 small red chillies
2 garlic cloves
4 tbsp vegetable oil
250ml chicken stock
1 tsp oyster sauce
a good pinch of sugar
1 spring onion
Marinate the chicken pieces in half the soy sauce for 30 minutes. At the same time, soak the black beans in the sherry, also for 30 minutes. While the chicken and beans soak, finely chop the onion, remove the seeds from the chillies and finely slice them, then peel and finely chop the garlic.
Mix together and set aside in a small bowl. Heat a wok or large frying pan over a high heat, add half the oil and when it’s smoking add the chicken. It will spit and splutter, but cook until golden brown, then tip everything into a heatproof bowl and set aside. Return the wok to the heat and add the remaining oil. When it is just about smoking, tip in the black beans, onion, chilli and garlic.
Cook until fragrant – about 2 minutes. Before the garlic burns pour in the chicken stock, the remaining soy sauce, the oyster sauce and the sugar. Return the chicken (and not the oil) to the pan and cook over a high heat to reduce the sauce until thick. Serve in deep bowls with finely sliced spring onion.
Enough for 2.
I USE CHICKEN BREASTS in this recipe, and poach them in store-bought chicken stock. It’s a quick and appealing dish with vaguely Mexican origins. With many Southern Californians in town for the filming of The Hobbit, Mexican food seems to be enjoying a bit of a renaissance as they seek out an authentic taste of home.
Poached Chicken in Green Sauce
1 onion
6 outer leaves from an iceberg lettuce
a handful of coriander leaves
a handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves
2 fat garlic cloves
2 small red chillies
200g ground almonds
200ml chicken stock
salt
1 litre chicken stock
4 skinless chicken breasts
Roughly chop the onion, then place in the bowl of a food processor. Add the lettuce leaves, coriander and parsley. Peel the garlic and seed and chop the chilli. Add to the ingredients in the food processor and blitz until it forms a smooth purée. Tip in the almonds and chicken stock, season with salt and blitz again. Tip into a container and refrigerate until needed. It will keep for 2-3 days.
To poach the chicken, bring the stock to a simmer in a deep frying pan. Place the chicken breasts in the stock and cover with a lid. Cook for 6 minutes, then turn over and cook for a further 6 minutes or until cooked through. Remove the breasts to a suitable plate and keep them warm.
Pour 2 cups of the poaching stock into a deep saucepan, place over a medium heat and stir in the green sauce base. Stir until heated through, ensuring that the almonds do not scorch on the bottom of the pan. Arrange the breasts on serving plates, pour the warm sauce over the top and serve.
Enough for 4.