Mouthwatering Sichuan Cold Chicken (Kou Shui Ji, 口水鸡)
The Mala MarketIngredients
For Chicken
- 2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (or half of a chicken, both white and dark meat, 1½-2 pounds total)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For Sauce and Garnish
- 4 tablespoons chicken juices from steaming, cooled
- 2 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Chinese soy sauce (Zhongba preferred)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon Sichuan pepper oil
- 2 teaspoons Chinese sesame paste
- 1 teaspoon roasted sesame oil
- ¼ cup chili oil (eyeball the ratio of ¾ oil to ¼ crisp)
- 2 scallions, green part only, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon roasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- Wash and dry chicken and place in a bowl or dish such as a pie plate that fits in your steamer. Pour 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine over the chicken. Sprinkle the salt all over the chicken, and spread the grated ginger under and over the skin. Place the bowl in the steamer, cover the steamer with the lid and bring to a boil. When the water begins to steam, set timer for 20 minutes, and cook over low steam. At 20 minutes, check temperature with a thermometer, aiming for around 160°, as the chicken will continue to cook a bit off the heat. You can also prick the chicken with a sharp knife to make sure the juices run clear and not pink or bloody. Depending on the size of your chicken pieces, this can take from 20 to 30 minutes. When just cooked through, remove chicken pieces from the heat and the bowl and let cool. Reserve the chicken juices.
- Mix together well all the ingredients for the sauce except the chili oil: chicken juices, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, Sichuan pepper oil, sesame paste and sesame oil. Then add most of the chili oil to the sauce, leaving about a tablespoon behind, and mix briefly. Do not emulsify the sauce, as you want the sauce to separate and the red oil to rise to the top. Pour the sauce into the bottom of a serving bowl that's not too much larger than your chicken.
- Remove the chicken from the bone. The easiest way to do this with a chicken breast is to turn it over and gently separate the bone from the meat with your hand. Cut it neatly into slices about ½-inch wide, or a bit less. Thinner slices will allow the chicken to absorb more sauce. Arrange the slices neatly on top of the sauce. Pour the remaining chili oil over the top of the chicken and garnish with the peanuts, sesame seeds and scallions. Eat by plucking the chicken out of the sauce.
Notes
If you start with a readymade rotisserie chicken, you can compensate for the missing chicken juices by adding some of the jellied chicken broth from the bottom of the bag; or 4 tablespoons chicken broth; or 4 tablespoons water and 1/2 teaspoon chicken powder. Also add 1 teaspoon grated ginger to the sauce.