Boiled Chicken with Ginger and Scallion Oil 薑蔥白切雞-

This dish is super easy to make at home. There are two ways to make chicken with ginger and scallion oil- steamed or boiled. I prefer boiled, bcz its much easier and I can save the broth for noodle soup the next day or to make steamed rice. There's another dish call Hainan Chicken- it's served with seasoned steamed rice in which the rice is cooked with the chicken broth and spice. But we are doing just boiled chicken for today.

To make boiled or steamed chicken, I highly recommend cage free chicken (or in Chinese, we call it "Running-Chicken", which you can get it at any Asian market). *Frozen or fresh is fine. The meat texture of the cage free chicken is much better and also more pricier but regular whole young chicken also works fine. If you don't like whole chicken, chicken quarters or legs/thighs work just fine too.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 4-5lbs whole young chicken or 4 chicken qt(cleaned)
• 1 big pc ginger, about 8 slices (peeled and finely chopped)
• 2 green onion (finely chopped)
• 1 ts ginger powder
• 11/2 ts salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil(should be enough oil for the whole chicken)

Ginger powder can be found all over the place. It helps enhance the fresh ginger in the recipe. 

So no matter what kind you choose, the flavors will be very similar. 

Boiling the Chicken

In a big pot, bring it to boiling in high heat with half pot of water. Make sure it has enough water to cover the chicken. Place the whole chicken into the pot slowly (be careful, don't hurt you self from the hot water or the hot sides of the pot). The water should be boiling again within 5 mins.

Then add a tbs of salt into the pot (the salt helps the chicken meat from getting to mushy from the water which is also why I prefer cage free chicken- the meat is a little tougher and it's perfect for steaming or boiling!)

Now turn the heat to medium-low for 45mins to an hour. If you make this dish with chicken quarters, it only need to be boiled for 30-40mins. To check if the chicken is cooked or not, use a chopstick and poke it in tight towards the bone. If there's pink or red liquid running out, let it cook for another 2-5 mins.

Now, use a tong to take out the chicken and place on a large plate and let it cool/rest for at least 30 minutes. In the restaurant, I would brush the cooked chicken with sesame oil. This will give it a nice aroma, pretty texture, and overall will taste better. But this is home cooking, so we will skip this part unless you want to.

After the chicken has cooled off a bit, use a chopping knife to chop it into small pieces and set it aside.

Making Ginger and Scallion Oil

On a cutting board, finely chop the ginger and green onion, put it in a bowl, then add 1 ts ginger powder and 11/2 ts salt. Mix it evenly. Set it aside!

Mince these as finely as you can. A food processor also helps with this. The finer chopped it is, the easier it is for the flavor to be extracted.

Add the rest of the seasonings to the bowl and mix it very evenly.

It should look something like this (no visible seasonings and fully incorporated).

Mixing the Hot Oil

In small pot, bring 1/2 cup of vegetables oil to burning hot then slowly pull it over the chopped ginger and scallion. Remember to mix the oil evenly with the ginger and scallion! The hot oil will bring out all the delicious flavors and aroma from the ginger and scallions.

**DO NOT be tempted to heat up sesame oil in replacement for vegetable oil because it will burn! If you haven't experienced this yourself, sesame oil isn't very resilient to heat and will burn before you're able to do anything with it. This is why it's used as a 'finishing oil' at the end of a dish instead of being cooked with for the beginning.

BE CAREFUL! It's hot oil and hot oil burns hardly ever go away! Slowly add this to your ginger/scallion mixture and it should look something like this. You'll hear a nice sizzle when you add the hot oil, and you'll almost immediately smell how delicious it is too.

What I've also done before is to put the scallions and ginger into a food processor and blend until it is finely chopped. Then I would the hot oil to the food processor carefully and slowly. I'd blend it again and let it become almost like a sauce. The presentation of this is a bit different but the flavors are the same. Experiment with your creativity and presentations!

That's it, Boiled Chicken with Ginger and Scallion Oil -薑蔥白切雞. The ginger oil is more of a sauce on the side so people can add that to their dish to their own liking. Some like to dip their food in it and others like to pour it on top. ENJOY!


Coming up next!
"Pork Ribs Lotus Roots and Red Bean Soup"
-排骨蓮藕红豆湯-
1 John 1:9

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

約翰壹書1:9

"我們若承認自己的罪，　神是信實的、公義的，必定赦免我們的罪，潔淨我們脫離一切不義."