drunken chicken
Welcome to Singapore Noodles, a newsletter where I share recipes from my kitchen in the Netherlands. Archived recipes and other content can be found via the index. My cookbooks, Wet Market to Table and PlantAsia: Asia’s Vegetable Wisdom in Recipes, Stories, and Techniques, are available for purchase. Thank you for being here, and enjoy this week’s post! ✨ — Pamelia
DRUNKEN CHICKEN
Drunken chicken is a traditional chicken dish that is commonly served cold — this makes it an appealing dish on warm days, or for entertaining, since it can be prepared in advance and kept in the refrigerator. The star ingredient of the dish, as suggested by its name, is Shaoxing wine, a rice wine that hails from Shaoxing and is a common ingredient in Chinese cooking.
The dish is typically prepared by steaming the chicken, cooling it, then allowing it to steep in a Shaoxing wine-rich liquid overnight so that the wine can permeate the chicken. My preferred approach is the poaching method used in Hainanese chicken rice, which is to say plunging the chicken into the boiling Shaoxing wine liquid, clamping on a lid, and turning off the heat. The chicken is left to poach gently in the residual heat as the liquid cools down. By the time the liquid reaches room temperature, the chicken flesh should be just-cooked and succulent. This goes into the refrigerator to chill. Overnight, the chicken continues to absorb flavour from the broth, while the juices trapped under the skin turn into a delicate jelly.
When I order drunken chicken in restaurants, it usually comes simply sliced and unadorned. But, inspired by MasterChef Australia contestant Alvin Quah and seeing that I had some beautiful ripe cherry tomatoes in the garden, I paired my drunken chicken with a green mango salad and the two dishes go surprisingly well together. (Instead of going to the Asian grocer for a green mango, I tend to grab the hardest, least ripe mango from the supermarket and it works a treat.) As the main carb, either jasmine rice or blanched and rinsed wheat noodles are great.
Green mango salad
Makes 4 servings
4 tablespoons dried shrimp
A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 bird’s eye chilli, thinly sliced
1 unripe mango, cut into matchsticks
160g green beans, trimmed and halved, blanched or cooked in the microwave
1 handful of coriander, roughly chopped
1 handful of mint, roughly chopped
1 handful of dill, roughly chopped
4 tablespoons roasted peanuts
Soak the dried shrimp for 2 minutes, then drain and discard the liquid. Pound it coarsely with a mortar and pestle and transfer the shrimp to a large mixing bowl. Add the tomatoes to the mortar and bruise it firmly to release the juices. Transfer the tomatoes to the bowl, leaving the juices behind. Stir in the sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, and chilli. Taste and adjust the seasoning as desired. Pour it into the bowl, and add the mango, green beans, coriander, mint, and dill. Toss well and transfer to a serving dish. Scatter the peanuts over and serve.
Drunken chicken
Makes 4 servings
