In
Taiwanese culture, Chicken is a symbolic dish for Lunar New Year as it
symbolises to bring the prosperity of family. This comes from the Taiwanese
phrase ’Jia-Ke-Khi-Ke’’(呷雞起家) as the
Taiwanese pronunciation of chicken -‘Ke’ – has the same sound as ‘’home’’.
Usually the whole chicken is the most popular, but ‘’Drunken Chicken’’ 醉雞, a dish of chicken soaked in Shaoxing wine, is also common to be served
during Lunar New Year. Even though I don’t really drink alcohol, I do love ‘Drunken
Chicken’ as the flavour of alcohol with food is just sooooo tasteful.
– 4 deboned skin-on chicken thighs
Use knife to
pound the thicker part of the meat so it’s evenly thick, season with salt, white pepper, and sesame
oil on both sides to briefly marinate for 10 minutes.
To prepare the broth
– 400ml Shaoxing wine
– 300ml chicken stock or water.
– 5-8 slices of ginger.
– 1 tsp sugar
– 1 tsp salt
– A handful goji berries.
Cook above ingredients (except goji berries) in
a large pot and bring it to a boil, turn off the heat, add goji berries, then
wait until cooling down.
Method
1. Roll the chicken thigh and wrap tightly
into a log with aluminum foil.
2. Steam these foil-wrapped chicken
rolls for 15-18 minutes over high heat, then turn off the heat and leave it for
a further 8 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
3. Transfer these chicken rolls in
ice cold water until completely cool, this step is to improve chicken’s texture.
4. Unwrap the chickens, soak them
into the cooled broth, keep in the fridge for 1-2 days. (I also place a piece
of parchment paper on top as a cover lid to help chickens soaked and marinated
evenly. )
5. Slice the chicken, decorate with goji berries and spring onion curls
before serving.
I have
actually made this dish a couple of times before but this time I also tried to
transfer the cooking process into a 15-sec-Reels-video. Please check it out, hope it’s easy to understand!
