Poached Chicken (白斬雞, Baak6 Zaam2 Gai1) with Ginger-Scallion Oil (薑蔥油, Goeng1 Cung1 Jau4)

This recipe was updated on 07 Sep 2014. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

When I was living with my sister and her husband while my house was being remodeled (over 15 years ago), I made this dish, took it out of the refrigerator, and put it out on the counter to warm up before cutting. While I was occupied preparing other things for dinner, their cat, Phoenix, also noticed that there was a chicken and jumped onto the counter to investigate. As I turned around and noticed that there’s more than just a chicken sitting on the counter, Phoenix starts licking the chicken! Needless to say, I shooed the cat away. Phoenix looked very unhappy, since it just lost possession of a tasty bird, and I wondered what to do with the chicken. I figured that if the cat thought the chicken was tasty, then the chicken is still tasty. So I washed the chicken under the faucet and proceeded to cut it up under the watchful gaze of Phoenix. We ate the chicken that night for dinner. My sister still laughs at this story and I can truthfully say that my chicken is kitty licking good!

This is one of those dishes that I’ve eaten all my life and was always intrigued on how it was made and presented. At first glance, it’s just a boiled chicken, but it’s better than a boiled chicken (if you know what I mean). Growing up, we kids would always call it the “Chinese Chicken”. You could always buy chicken prepared in this manner at the local Chinese delicatessen (with head and feet attached), but how do you make it at home? The meat is tender and has a special texture that keeps you coming back for more. At family gatherings, one of my Uncle’s would always make this dish and there wouldn’t be anything left of the chicken at the end of the meal.

The other aspect of this dish is the presentation. There’s something magical about cutting up and arranging a whole chicken on a serving plate so that the chicken doesn’t look like it was an object in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. The poaching of the chicken is easy compared to the cutting and arranging part.

So what was my Uncle’s secret to making poached chicken? It’s actually very simple - don’t overcook the chicken. Easier said than done, but what was his technique? Boil the chicken briefly, shut off the heat, and then allow the chicken to poach using residual heat of the water. The residual heat from the liquid poaches the chicken gently and then refrigeration helps to firm up the chicken’s skin which gives the chicken its special texture. This seems like a lot of work for one little chicken, but the results are always worth the trouble.

Now what about cutting and arranging the chicken? Refrigerating the chicken overnight before cutting the chicken turns the trapped juices in the chicken to gelatin and they don’t run out when you cut the chicken. The actual cutting and arranging of the chicken comes from practice, and using a sharp Chinese cleaver to properly cut the bones of the chicken without shattering them. It took many chickens for me to get to the point where I could make an acceptable presentation.

After the poaching completes, I have tried skipping the overnight refrigeration and immersed the chicken in an ice water bath instead. The resulting chicken is perfectly acceptable, but the juices don’t gel in the chicken. Part of the allure of this dish is eating the chicken gelatin. So if you’re in a hurry and want to serve the dish the same day, you can use the ice water bath after poaching.

You will need a sharp Chinese cleaver to cut the chicken into pieces. The cleaver is heavier and a lot wider than the normal carving knife. With practice, you will be able to disassemble the chicken and cut it into pieces using this tool. The cleaver is needed to cut through the bones in the drumstick and thighs (among others), which are very thick. In order to not shatter the bones, the cut needs to be done in one thrust. If you hesitate during the cut, the bones will shatter. If you’re too vigorous with your cut, you will see how a chicken flies (off the board).

The other necessary tool is a wooden cutting board. If you’ve ever seen the pros cutting chicken at the Chinese delicatessen, you’ll see that all the action occurs using a Chinese cleaver on a wooden cutting board. You can use a plastic board, but the cleaver has a tendency to bounce off the plastic board and the chicken with it (you can place a towel under the plastic board to prevent the board from moving).

I also put all the herbs and spices used to poach the chicken in a soak-out cooker. A soak-out cooker is a closeable fine mesh cage that prevents all the herb and spice bits and pieces from breaking up into the poaching liquid, thus keeping your stock clear and not marring the chicken skin. You also don’t have to fish out all those broken bits from the liquid since they’re contained in the soak-out cooker.

Cutting and arranging instructions are given. The dish is served at room temperature (not cold or hot). Be sure you have a sharp Chinese cleaver and remember, practice, practice, practice!

Enjoy!

Chicken Ingredients

4-6 lb.	2-3 kg.	Whole chicken (雞, gai1)
1 in.	30 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), lightly crushed
4 cloves	4 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), lightly crushed
1 tsp.	5 ml.	Whole black (黑椒, hak1 ziu1) or white (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1) peppercorns
½ cup	120 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
		Cold water to cover the chicken in the pot

Ginger Scallion Oil Ingredients

2 in.	60 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), Finely chopped
4 stalks	4 stalks	Green onions (葱, cung1), finely chopped
1 tsp.	5 ml.	Salt (鹽, jim4)
1 tsp.	5 ml.	Chicken bouillon powder (鷄粉, gai1 fan2)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Canola oil (芥花油, gaai3 faa1 jau4) or another neutral tasting oil

Equipment

8 qt.	7.5 L.	Pot
3.5 in.	9 cm.	Soak-out cooker to hold the spices in the slow cooker
		Kettle with boiled hot water
		Chinese cleaver or other heavy knife
		Cutting board

Chicken Poaching Instructions (One Day Before)

1. Boil a kettle with water for later use to refill the cooking pot with hot water.
2. Wash and clean the whole chicken of any remaining yellow skin and excess fat. Ideally all the yellow skin was removed at the processor when the chicken was cleaned, but some usually remains and will discolor the final dish if left on, so I rub the surface of the chicken with my fingers to remove any remaining. I also do the same for the neck, heart, and giblets, and then put the pieces into the chicken cavity. Discard the liver since it will break up in the poaching liquid.

   

   Soak-Out Cooker

3. Lightly crush the ginger and garlic, and together with the white or black peppercorns, put them into the soak-out cooker. Put the soak-out cooker and then the chicken, breast side up, into the cooking pot. Make sure the soak-out cooker doesn’t tear the chicken skin. Add the Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry and enough cold water to cover the chicken in the pot.
4. Bring the pot with the chicken almost to a boil over high heat uncovered (it’s OK if the water briefly comes to a boil – just reduce the heat if this happens), skimming any fat and scum from the water as it heats up. As the fat and scum are skimmed, the water level drops uncovering the chicken, so use the kettle of boiled hot water to refill the pot to recover the chicken. Removing the fat and scum from the water keeps the skin from getting discolored, as does making sure the chicken is fully covered by hot water. It is important that you don’t bring the pot back to a boil as this will cause more scum particles to form in the liquid and toughen the chicken. My signal that the water is about to boil is when many air bubbles start to vigorously rise to the surface of the liquid.
5. Cover the pot and turn off the heat. Leave the covered pot with the heat off for one hour to poach the chicken. At the end of one hour, take the chicken out of the pot and put it into a covered container for refrigeration overnight. Remove the soak-out cooker and discard the contents. Reserve the poaching liquid as it makes a good chicken stock.

Ginger-Scallion Oil Instructions (Serving Day)

1. Make the ginger-scallion oil. The ginger and scallions need to be finely chopped before adding the salt and chicken bouillon powder into a small bowl. Add the oil and mix the ingredients together. Adjust the amount of oil so that the resulting mixture has an equal volume of ginger-scallion and oil. The mixture should taste salty, which goes well with the chicken. Add more chicken bouillon powder and/or salt to adjust the taste as necessary.

Chicken Part Disassembly Instructions (Serving Day)

Disassembly Step 1

The first part of this procedure is to disassemble the chicken neatly into its major parts. This all takes some practice, so don’t be discouraged if your first attempts don’t turn out looking very pretty (my first attempts certainly didn’t). Remember - practice, practice, practice.

1. Take the chicken out of the refrigerator at least one hour before serving (the chicken can be cut while cold). All the chicken juices will be gelled after refrigeration and will remain so during the disassembly and cutting process.

   

   Disassembly Step 3

2. Sharpen the Chinese cleaver. A dull blade will make the cutting job difficult and could be more dangerous to you than the chicken.
3. Put the whole chicken on the cutting board. Locate the joint connecting the wing to the chicken body and cut through the joint to remove the wing. Repeat the step to remove the other wing. Set the wings aside. 
4. Place the chicken breast side up. Take the tip of the drumstick in one hand (the cleaver is in the other) and locate the skin connecting the thigh to the chicken body. Cut through the skin to separate the thigh from the chicken body. The thigh will separate from the

   

   Disassembly Step 4

   chicken body, but will still be connected at the joint to the body. Locate the joint connecting the thigh to the chicken body (you can wiggle the drumstick-thigh to locate the joint) and cut through the joint to remove the drumstick and thigh. Repeat the drumstick-thigh cutting steps for the other drumstick-thigh. Set the two drumstick-thigh parts aside.
5. The next step is to separate the breast from the back. Place the chicken neck side down on the cutting board and butt side up in the air. You want to make a vertical cut through the rib cage to separate breasts from the back. Set the breast and back parts aside.

   

   Disassembly Step 5

The chicken is now disassembled into its major parts. Now it’s on to cutting and arranging the pieces.

Chicken Cutting and Arranging Instructions (Serving Day)

The method to cutting and arranging the chicken parts on the serving platter is to end up with the back pieces on the bottom, the drumstick, thigh, and wing pieces on both sides of the back pieces, and the breast pieces on top. You want to cut all the chicken parts into about 1-inch (2.5 cm.) wide pieces so that they can easily be picked up by chopsticks.

Cutting and Arranging Step 2

If you cut the chicken parts right, the cut pieces will remain in relative position (i.e. the part will retain its shape, but will be cut into pieces) and you can use the Chinese cleaver as a scoop to transfer all the cut pieces from the cutting board to the presentation plate in one motion. Your knife skills need more practice if you have to move each individual piece.

1. Sharpen the Chinese cleaver. A dull blade will make the cutting job difficult and could be more dangerous to you than the chicken.
2. The chicken back is the first part to cut and arrange on the presentation plate. You want to cut the chicken parts with one thrust so as not to shatter the bones.

   

   Cutting and Arranging Steps 4-6

   If the bones do shatter, try to gather the bone fragments and discard them. Cut the back into approximately 1-inch (2.5 cm.) wide pieces and transfer the pieces all at once using your cleaver to the presentation plate. You want the butt to hang off one end of the presentation platter.
3. Place the cooked neck, giblets, and heart on the serving platter above the neck end of the back pieces.
4. Take one of the drumstick-thigh parts and find the joint between the drumstick and thigh. Separate the drumstick from the thigh by cutting through the joint. You can use your fingers to feel where the joint is. Just be careful not to rip the chicken skin with your fingers.

   

   Cutting and Arranging Steps 7-8

5. Cut the drumstick and thigh into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces. This is where your cleaver skills will be tested as these parts have the thickest bones and are most likely to shatter if you don’t cut in one thrust. Put the drumstick and thigh pieces on one side of the back pieces on the serving platter. I usually point the end of the drumstick towards the butt end of the back pieces.
6. Repeat the steps to separate the remaining drumstick-thigh and to cut it into pieces. Put the pieces on the other side of the back pieces on the serving platter.

   

   Cutting and Arranging Step 9

7. Take one of the wings and cut between the joints to separate it into three pieces. Put the wing pieces at the neck end of the back pieces, and on top of neck, giblets, and heart.
8. Repeat the wing separation step for the remaining wing and put the wing pieces at the neck end of the back pieces, and on top of neck, giblets, and heart.
9. Separate the breast into halves by cutting it lengthwise into two pieces.
10. Cut one breast half into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces and transfer the pieces to the serving platter. Put the chicken breast pieces on top of the back pieces.

    

    Cutting and Arranging Steps 10-11

11. Repeat the step cutting the remaining breast half into pieces and transferring the pieces to the serving platter on top of remaining exposed back pieces.
12. Serve the chicken with steamed rice and the ginger-scallion oil.