Chicken Dish for Chinese New Year

Chicken dish is in the not-to-be-missed dish in Chinese New Year food especially during Chinese New Year reunion dinner.  Traditionally, this chicken dish will use a whole chicken including head and claws – cooked and offered to “god” before being cut to smaller pieces to be eaten.  This Chinese New Year chicken dish taste so good you must have thought the recipe is somewhat complicated.  Wrong!  This chicken dish is very easy!

Looking at this chicken dish recipe, ingredients needed are basically just a kampong chicken, salt and water!  The kampong chicken will be boiled in a pot of water (yes, just plain water) and hauled up when cooked.  When it cooled down, coat it with salt.  If you’re using this chicken dish as offerings, go ahead.  If not, wait for about 15 minutes before you cut it to smaller portions to be eaten.  So that the chicken would have absorbed a bit of the salty taste.  It is normal to serve the chicken dish cold.

What’s better still, the pot of water used to boil the chicken can be kept in freezer whole year long to be used as if chicken stock.  Use it for your noodle dishes or soup (in replacement of plain water).  It is almost tasteless but with the essence and fragrance of chicken!  Pack it into few small portions with containers or waterproof packets for use at different occasion.

The only thing concerned in preparation would be equipment.  You need to have a pot big enough for whole chicken and figure out how you’re going to haul up the whole chicken later without poking too many holes on it!  Lol!  Don’t worry, its easy if you have a large thong.  I sometimes use hands (in gloves and when it cooled down) but also seen people hauling it up with just chopsticks, one poked into the chicken’s neck part and another in the buttock.  If you’re not going to serve it as offerings, go ahead and buy cut chicken.  You’ll have no problem with equipment.

I’ve almost got the whole chicken recipe revealed already but let’s look in detail:-

Chicken Dish for Chinese New Year

Ingredients:

• 1 pot of water (enough to submerge the whole chicken + 3 inches more in height to prepare for evaporation)
• 1 whole kampong chicken (cleaned)
• 2 tbsp of salt (coarse salt preferably but fine salt will be ok too)

Preparation:

1. Boil the water and plunge in the chicken.
2. Keep boiling until cooked (about 20 minutes, test it by poking a knife into the flesh – flesh should be softer when cooked.  If you’re not sure, note that Chinese food is rather overcooked than undercooked)
3. Haul up the chicken.
4. Set aside to let cool.  Then coat the outside of the chicken with your hands.  Leave it for another 15 minutes.
5. Ready to serve.