Cold Cut Chicken

This is a famous Cantonese dish, the finishing chicken comes out light, with tender meat and crispy skin. The dip for the chicken is packed with flavor which kicks the chicken up another notch. This recipe comes from Cantonese chef Hu's online posts.



Serves 4

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:
A whole chicken, about 4-5 pounds
2 tablespoon finely sliced scallion
2 tablespoon finely diced ginger
8 tablespoon peanut oil or olive oil
salt to taste, about 1/2-1 tablespoon
20 cubes of ice


Tips:

1. If there are left over chicken, there is another spicy dip that can be made to change things up a bit.
2. The finer dice of the scallion and ginger, the better. Just make sure they are sliced/diced and not chopped, as chopping would make them mushy.
3. It is very important to have the right water temperature when cooking the chicken, because we want to simmer the chicken so it has a tender texture.

Instruction:

1. In a deep soup pot that will fit a whole chicken. Put in enough water that can cover the whole chicken, bring to a boil over high heat. While water is boiling, clean the chicken, if using a whole chicken, take out the necks and organs from chicken cavity, you can keep them if you like. When water is boiling, submerge the chicken into the water. Cover, bring the water back to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for about 40-50 minutes.
2. The water now should be around 175 to 185 degrees, another way to tell is there will be bubbles lazily rise to the surface. If using a whole chicken, every 15 minutes while simmering, take the chicken out of the water, and quickly dump the water inside chicken's cavity back in the pot, then put the chicken back in the pot. This is to help to keep the temperature inside and outside of the chicken the same.
   
3. The chicken is done when cutting through the thickest part of the chicken thigh and the meat inside is no longer pink.
4. While chicken is cooking, prepare the dip. Put the prepared green onion and ginger in a small bowl, add in salt to taste. Heat oil in a wok to 175 degrees over high heat and let it cool for a minute then pour it on top of the green onion and ginger.
5. During the last couple minutes of cooking, put ice and enough cold water to submerge the chicken in a deep bowl/pot.
6. When chicken is done, put chicken into the ice bath and run cold water on it until chicken is cold. Cut up the chicken and serve it with the dip on the side. Taste test with a small piece of chicken with the dip to see if more salt is needed.