Boiled Chicken (上海白斩鸡/三黄油鸡)
Lunch @ one of the branches of Zhending Chicken Restaurant (www.zhending-chicken.com/en/index.asp) [振鼎鸡].
Boiled chicken is a favourite dish in Shanghai. This is a rustic farmland dish that has adapted well to city life. Not every type of chicken can be used to make this dish, as there is an emphasis on the tenderness of the flesh. Only the hens are used and the locals favour a breed of chicken called Sanhuang Chicken [上海浦东三黄鸡], literally meaning "Chicken of 3 yellows" as the legs, skin and beak of the chicken are all yellowish. The locals believe this breed of chicken yields the most succulent and tender flesh.
The cooking process is simple but demands lots of intricacies. The chicken is usually first poached quickly in boiling water to first seal the flavour of the chicken. It is then boiled in water with some ginger, spring onion and Shaoxing cooking wine until it is about 70% cooked (this meaning, both flesh and bones have been cooked but the bones have not been fully cooked through to still yield a brown-reddish marrow centre). The chicken is then dunked into cold water for a few minutes, hang up to rinse and then smeared with sesame oil before serving.
This method of cooking may sound rather bland but it actually accentuates the authentic taste of the chicken itself. Only by doing so, one gets to really taste the fattiness of the skin with the succulence of the flesh. In Asia, the thighs are hugely popular and demands a higher price. The less delectable chicken breast meat are usually served sandwiched between the more desired pieces of chicken thigh and shoulder meat.
In this restaurant, 2 kind of sauces accompany the dish - one is soysauce based and heavily spiced with grated ginger while the other is a chilli sauce, that is seemingly prepared from cooking chilli powder.
In Singapore, the chicken for the famous Hainanese Chicken rice [海南鸡饭] is more or less prepared the same way (although we prefer our chicken even plumper and fattier and we have much better ginger and chilli sauces) and as such, this is the spot I come to whenever I crave for a taste from home, despite the usual crappy and lousy service I have to tolerate at this popular chain.
Boiled Chicken (上海白斩鸡/三黄油鸡)
Lunch @ one of the branches of Zhending Chicken Restaurant (www.zhending-chicken.com/en/index.asp) [振鼎鸡].
Boiled chicken is a favourite dish in Shanghai. This is a rustic farmland dish that has adapted well to city life. Not every type of chicken can be used to make this dish, as there is an emphasis on the tenderness of the flesh. Only the hens are used and the locals favour a breed of chicken called Sanhuang Chicken [上海浦东三黄鸡], literally meaning "Chicken of 3 yellows" as the legs, skin and beak of the chicken are all yellowish. The locals believe this breed of chicken yields the most succulent and tender flesh.
The cooking process is simple but demands lots of intricacies. The chicken is usually first poached quickly in boiling water to first seal the flavour of the chicken. It is then boiled in water with some ginger, spring onion and Shaoxing cooking wine until it is about 70% cooked (this meaning, both flesh and bones have been cooked but the bones have not been fully cooked through to still yield a brown-reddish marrow centre). The chicken is then dunked into cold water for a few minutes, hang up to rinse and then smeared with sesame oil before serving.
This method of cooking may sound rather bland but it actually accentuates the authentic taste of the chicken itself. Only by doing so, one gets to really taste the fattiness of the skin with the succulence of the flesh. In Asia, the thighs are hugely popular and demands a higher price. The less delectable chicken breast meat are usually served sandwiched between the more desired pieces of chicken thigh and shoulder meat.
In this restaurant, 2 kind of sauces accompany the dish - one is soysauce based and heavily spiced with grated ginger while the other is a chilli sauce, that is seemingly prepared from cooking chilli powder.
In Singapore, the chicken for the famous Hainanese Chicken rice [海南鸡饭] is more or less prepared the same way (although we prefer our chicken even plumper and fattier and we have much better ginger and chilli sauces) and as such, this is the spot I come to whenever I crave for a taste from home, despite the usual crappy and lousy service I have to tolerate at this popular chain.