Poached Chicken Breasts - Week of Menus

From Week of Menus

Poached Chicken Breasts with Three Dipping Sauces
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
2 to 3 whole chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
5 slices of ginger
1 onion, or leek, or a few cloves of garlic (to flavor the water)

4 inches ginger root, peeled finely chopped (I use my mini food processor)
3 scallions, finely chopped
½ cup vegetable oil
¾ teaspoon salt

2 jalapenos, finely chopped (I use my mini food processor)
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup rice wine vinegar

5 scallions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ cup soy sauce (I prefer low sodium, Kikkoman green)

Method
Fill a large stockpot with water. The water should be at a level which will allow you to completely SUBMERGE your chicken underwater, with no problem. A large stock pot will generally be big enough.

Cover your stockpot and bring water, ginger, and onion/leek/garlic to a boil. In the meanwhile, salt chicken breasts liberally and give it a bit of a salt scrub. Rinse thoroughly and set aside, until water is fully boiling.



Once water is fully boiling, place chicken into the water, making sure that it is completely submerged in the water. Leave pot uncovered and bring chicken and water to another rolling boil again. While waiting it to boil again, you can skim off any scum off the surface of the water, if you intend to use the broth for rice porridge or something else. If you don’t want to use the broth for anything, go ahead and just wait for the chicken and water to boil again.


Once water is boiling, carefully stir chicken to make sure that the entire pot is evenly distributed with hot water. Cover pot with lid and TURN OFF stove. Do NOT remove lid of pot for the next 45 minutes, but you can even let it rest for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

While your chicken is enjoying a nice soak in the hot water, begin making your 3 dipping sauces.

For the ginger sauce, mix together finely chopped ginger, finely chopped scallions, oil and salt together in a bowl. Mix and set aside.

For the jalapeno sauce, mix together finely chopped jalapenos, sugar, and vinegar. Set aside.

For the scallion sauce, place chopped scallions in a bowl. Heat two tablespoons of oil in a small, fry pan or sauce pan. The oil should be hot enough that it shimmers or you can test by carefully putting one scallion piece in the oil to see if it sizzles. If the oil sizzles the scallion, then carefully pour the two tablespoons of oil over the scallions in the bowl and allow the scallions to be cooked by the oil. Add soy sauce and mix. Set aside.

Once the 45 or more minutes of chicken cooking in water is up, uncover pot, and remove chicken breasts from water and place in a bowl (in order to catch residual liquid). Allow chicken to cool enough so that you can handle it without screaming OUCH!

Once chicken has cooled sufficiently (30 minutes or so), begin cutting chicken as you wish. I don’t like skin so I removed skin, peeled breast off of bone and cut it into nice large cubes.

Serve chicken warm, room temp, or cold from fridge, with dipping sauces. Allow diners to dip however they please. Perfect with hot rice.

滷水包

滷水包 from:

http://oniyomeryori.blogspot.com/2012/04/blog-post_24.html

之前的滷水汁送給了朋友，她自己滷過，家人也大愛，其實滷水包就是她送的， 她送我原材料，我送她製成品，禮尚住來，哈哈！ 滷水汁可以一直重覆使用，10年，20年的陳年汁就是這樣來的，放涼後，拿掉蔥，放到凍箱急凍，煮時再室溫溶雪，每次再試味，加點蔥、香料、冰糖、水及醬油便成。鬼嫁家的瑞士汁就已經有4年歷史了～～ 相公問如果有天我們要搬到外國去，瑞士汁怎麼辦？ 當然是一起搬了！要問的嗎！！

調味：

蔥段     2條

滷水包      1包

醬油     1樽 （約500ml)

水     500ml

冰糖     3湯匙

材料：

牛腱 2條

鵝翼 2隻 (急凍的在街市凍肉檔有)

鴨舌 50g

雞蛋 1隻

製法：

1）  牛腱洗淨，切去外面的筋（如有的話，不切也沒問題）

2） 加入薑及蔥，凍水落牛腱，中火煮至水滾，以冷水洗淨備用

3） 雞翼、鵝翼及鴨舌如步驟(2)般跑活水，以冰水浸10分鐘，令皮急促收縮，更加爽口，煮完皮也不會爛

4） 大鍋或LC鍋加入所有調味料，（可以試味，再隨口味加糖或醬油，不過我沒再加）滾起後加牛腱、鵝翼和鴨舌，滾起轉小火，煮30分鐘，牛腱中途反轉一次，熄火焗20分鐘或過夜

5） 雞蛋滷4分鐘，弄碎蛋殼至有點裂紋，再以滷水汁滷過夜

6） 牛腱放涼後，切薄片，淋上汁便能吃

小貼士：

1） 除了以上材料，滷什麼也可以，鴨腎(30分鐘)、豆腐（40分鐘）、雞翼

2） 滷水放涼，材料浸過夜更入味

趁急凍滷水前，今天再滷雞翼，因為LC非常鎖水，只小火煮了5分鐘，熄火焗了40分鐘，非常入味軟滑，一點也不“老”或“鞋”，皮還有彈性呢(因為浸過冰水

Ah Leung's Secret "Master Sauce" recipe

鹵水

The "Master Sauce" - the initial pot:

- 2 cups of dark soy sauce

- 1 cup of light soy sauce

- 1 cup of sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)

- 3 cups of water

- 1/2 cup of Shao Xing rice wine

- 1 small whole onion, peeled and wedged

- 4 to 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

- 1 green onion, cut in about 1-inch pieces

- 3 to 4 inches length of fresh ginger, cut into thick slices

For the spices:

- 3 teaspoons of fennel seeds

- 3 teaspoons of cloves

- 3 to 4 whole cardamom - chop them into big pieces or crack them

- 20 star anises, break them up

- 2 sticks of cinnamon, hand-break them into small shreds

- 3 teaspoons of Sichuan peppercorn

- 2 to 3 pieces of dried tangerine peels (chan pei)

- About 3 big cubes (each about 2-inch x 2-inch x 1-inch) of rock sugar

(Note: you may also add cummin seeds, white or black peppercorns if you like.)

(Note 2: If you want to take time to cook, use whole spices. Don't use the powder form. The result from cooking with whole spices is so much better.)

Pour all the ingredients into a medium-size pot. Bring the sauce to a boil. Do an initial boiling for about 5 minutes. Then reduce the heat to a simmer. Let it bubble for about 3 hours. There... you have a pot of "Master Sauce" freshly made.

You may use the sauce for flavoring all Cantonese braised dishes (e.g. beef brisket, abalone, pork belly, etc.)... or use it to cook soy sauce chicken. Or use it to cook tea eggs.

For home-cooked soy sauce chicken... I only do split chicken breast with ribs and not a whole chicken. You may cook a small whole chicken with it. (I am not sure if the above portion is enough to cover the chicken, so adjust if needed). Bring the sauce to a high-heat boil. Add the chicken/breasts/thighs. Boil for about 13 minutes or so. Turn off the heat. Let the chicken/breasts/thighs continue to cook in the sauce for about 15 to 20 more minutes at least. Remove, chop up and serve with some braising liquid.

This pot of "Master Sauce" is like the mother dough of your sour dough bread. Filter out all the spices and residues. Save the liquid only in the freezer. (It won't even freeze up) Next time you make another round of soy sauce chicken: add more ingredients of everything. The soy sauces - probably use about one quarter of the portion suggested above. Spices - about the same. Rock sugar - only 1 cube.