Margarita's International Recipes

Imperial China

Boiled and Double Braised Chicken This is a historical recipe. This recipe dates all the way to the Sung dynasty, which lasted from the late 10th to the late 13th century. It comes from a collection of recipes called Shuo Fu. It's a rather simple recipe, but one that requires a lot of care - and half the cooking time that the originally recipe called for. I made it according to the instructions and I completely overcooked the chicken. The original recipe author recommends that you place the chicken into a wire basket before dropping it into the oil, for an easy transfer between pots. I would very much recommend using one if you have one - I don't and it was pretty messy and time consuming to move the chicken between the pots. Flavor-wise, I liked this dish. I ate it all, despite how dry some pieces were. PRINT PDF Boiled and Double Braised Chicken Ingredients 1 small whole chicken 1/4 cup rice vinegar 1/4 cup Shaoxing wine or sherry 1/2 tsp salt vegetable oil for deep frying Directions Place the chicken in a stock pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn down heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove chicken from the water and let cool. Remove flesh from the chicken and cut into bite size piece. Add vinegar, wine and salt to a large sauce pan and place on the stove over low heat. Heat enough oil in a wok or frying pan to cover the chicken pieces over high heat. Drop chicken pieces into the oil. Cook for 2 minutes, remove from the oil and drop into the saucepan with the wine-vinegar mixture. Stir to coat well, and then return to the hot oil, cook for another couple of minutes and return to the wine-vinegar mixture. Repeat one last time. Increase the heat to high and cook, stirring frequently, until the liquid fully evaporates. Adapted from a recipe in Michelle Berriedale-Johnson's The British Museum Cookbook Imperial China Recipes | Marga's International Recipes | Marga's Best Recipes | Marga's Food Blog | E-mail