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White Cut Chicken (Chinese Poached Chicken)

This is a Cantonese poached chicken that is served cold with a Spring Onion & Ginger Oil dipping sauce. The 'White' part of the name comes from meaning plain, as in minimal ingredients. The 'Cut' part comes from meaning the while chicken is simply cut into pieces with a cleaver, not separated at the joints like in the western part of the world. This sounds absolutely delicious for a lunch or light dinner.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Lunch, Main Dish
Cuisine Chinese
Servings 2 servings

Ingredients
  

For the Chicken

  • 1 whole chicken, small, about 1 kilo
  • 4 slices fresh ginger
  • 2 spring onions, tied in a knot
  • 1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine
  • 1/4 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns, or use pink or white peppercorns
  • sesame oil, for brushing
  • fresh coriander, chopped, for garnish

For the Spring Onion & Ginger Oil Dipping Sauce

  • 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
  • 1/2 cup spring onion, green part only, finely chopped
  • 4 spring onions, white part only, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon fresh coriander, stems, chopped
  • 2-3 tablespoons cooking oil
  • 2 tablespoons broth, from poaching the chicken
  • pinch salt, or to taste

Instructions
 

  • Remove the head and feet from the chicken, rinse it inside and out and place in a large pot. Add the spring onion, ginger, peppercorns, and cooking wine.
  • Add water to the pot to just cover the chicken. Bring to a boil and hold that for 8 minutes (a few minutes longer if you have a larger chicken), then turn off heat, leave on the burner, and cover for 20 minutes.
  • In a large bowl fill with cold water and ice, remove the chicken from the pot, set the pot and broth aside, and place in the ice water and soak for several minutes, turning it often to ensure the chicken is completely cooled. Remove and drain residual water, place on a cutting board and brush the skin with sesame oil.
  • To cut the chicken, use of a large cleaver is highly recommended as the weight of the knife is helpful. The chicken has to be completely cooled in order to cut to get smooth edges. Basically remove the legs at the thigh joint, then cut each thigh from the leg, then cut each leg in half. Remove the wings and separate each wing at the joints. Cut the remaining chicken in half, cut each half into large pieces.

For the Spring Onion & Ginger Oil Dipping Sauce

  • In a small heat proof bowl, mix together the ginger, chopped spring onion greens. and coriander.
  • Heat the oil in a small saucepan or wok, and the spring onion whites when the oil is hot and saute until the whites are just starting to brown and they are aromatic.
  • Pour the hot oil into the bowl with the other ingredients and mix. Add two tablespoons of broth from the pot the chicken was in. Season with a pinch of salt or to taste and mix well.
  • Serve the dipping sauce as a side for the chicken, enjoy.

Notes

I cannot really remember what a whole chicken in the market costs, I think 150 or 200 Baht. Going with 200 Baht, 2 servings is about $2.95 per serving, which I think may be on the high side. I will verify price and servings when I make this.
This recipe for White Cut Chicken (Chinese Poached Chicken) is from China Sichuan Food.