White boiled chicken or “white chop” chicken (白斩鸡)

In Singapore you can find many “chicken rice” stalls, and usually there is a choice of “white” chicken or “roast” chicken.  This recipe is for the white boil chicken, which is prepare by poaching the chicken in hot water.  As the preparation is simply poaching the chicken, the chicken has to be fresh, and frozen chicken should not be used as frozen chicken has some “ice” taste.  For best result, use free range chicken or kampong chicken.

Ingredient

1. 1 fresh chicken
2.  stalk of spring onion
3. 1 slice of ginger
4. ½ teaspoon salt
5. 1 teaspoon sesame oil
6. 1 pot of water (enough to submerge the chicken)
7. 1 tablespoon salt for cleaning the chicken

Gravy and garnish

1. 3 tablespoon light soya sauce
2. 1 tablespoon sesame oil
3. ½ teaspoon sugar
4. ½ cucumber
5. 1 stalk of Chinese parsley

Method

1. Clean the whole chicken of feathers and internal organs.  Rub 1 tablespoon of salt on the skin and gut for 2-3 mins, and rinse away.
2. Boil the water in a big pot (big enough to submerge the whole chicken).  When boil, add in ½ teaspoon salt, a slice of ginger, and a stalk of spring onion.
3. Submerge the chicken and using high heat to bring the water to boil.  Once the water boil, bring down the heat to medium,  and allow it to simmer for 10 mins.  Turn off the heat and cover (and do not open and check) the pot for 40 mins.
4. When time is up, open the cover, and remove the chicken and drain dry. Rub sesame oil on the skin, and leave it to cool.  Do not cut when warm.
5. In a bowl, put in ½ teaspoon sugar and 3 tablespoon light soya sauce and 3 tablespoon hot chicken stock (hot so that sugar dissolve easier), stir till sugar dissolve.
6. Remove the skin of cucumber, half it through the center along the length of the cucumber and then slices into thick slices diagonally.  Place them in the center of the flat plate.
7. Cut chicken into pieces and lay them nicely on the plate on top of the sliced cucumber. (usually placing them to resemble the whole chicken).  Then, evenly sprinkle the sauce in item 5 on the chicken.  Cut some Chinese parsley and put on top of the chicken.
8. Serve cool.

Tip:  stock used to cook the chicken can be kept for future cooking as stock, or made into a soup and serve with chicken, or use to cook chicken rice.

Note that the chicken meat should be in a state where it just reach its cooked state, something like medium well, so that the meat is very tender.   If it is well done, the meat will be too tough (or “old”).  However, there might be some reddish color of the meat near the bone (especially when frozen chicken is used).  If you find that some of the meat is not cook, you could increase the simmering time slightly next time.  It also depends how big is the pot and how much water you have, as water is the only thing that retain the heat to cook the chicken, ie having lesser water will tend not to cook the chicken that well. (you have to try it few times to perfect it)