Thursday, December 30, 2010

Hakka Rice Cooker Salt Baked Chicken 客家盐焗鸡

Asian Style Christmas Bird?

Few months ago my eldest brother sent me an email introducing the Salted Chicken which was a trademark of Hakka Cuisine. This dish reminded him of the salted steamed rice wine chicken (客家盐酒鸡) our mum used to cook for the Chinese New Year eve dinner when we were kids. Ever since our mum suffered from Alzheimer's and was admitted to a nursery care, we no longer had the chance to taste this dish. We missed that unique home brewed sweet rice wine flavored chicken. The sticky rice wine (自酿米酒) was home brewed by our mum. Her rice wine was popular among our relatives and friends for use in home cooking, especially well sought after in the Chinese after birth confinement diet。But it is sad I no longer have the chance to learn from my mother L

Seeing me getting interested in cooking and started off this food blog, my brother suggested me to learn up our Hakka cuisine and shared in this blog too. I reckoned this was a good idea and started to surf for related Hakka recipes, and then I came across this creative and modern way of making Hakka salted chicken.

The traditional Hakka cooking method used parchment paper to wrap up a whole chicken, then buried it in a wok full of fried coarse salt and simmered till it was cooked; very arduous. This one however requires only a rice cooker to do the magic. This lazy people way of salt baking may not show the true flavor of Hakka Salted Chicken but it is surely a simple and healthy way to cook a chicken without compromising much on the taste.


Because I had a small rice cooker, I could only cook size 9, chicken. Instead of the whole chicken you can also opt for parts such as drumsticks or wings. I had attempted using chicken, wings and drumsticks. They all tasted flavorsome and not greasy. I served this chicken with Hainanese chicken rice. Of course no chicken rice is complete without the special chicken rice chilies, isn't it? J


Hakka Salt Baked Chicken 客家盐焗鸡 - Featured in Group Recipes 30/12/2010
This year, we celebrated our Christmas at Hahei Camp site with limited utensil and a very basic kitchen; I had used this recipe to make our very own Asian style Christmas birds for our Christmas dinner. J



HAKKA RICE COOKER SALT BAKED CHICKEN













INGREDIENTS:
1 Whole Chicken – size 9 (can be replaced with drumsticks or wings)
3 stalks Spring onions
4-5 slices of ginger

SEASONING:
Salt to your taste
Chicken stock powder to your taste
1tsp sesame oil
1tbsp Rice wine/cooking wine (optional, I didn't use)
Cooking oil

METHOD:
  1. Clean chicken, pat dry with kitchen towels; prepare a few slices of ginger.
  2. Massage and rub whole chicken inside out with salt, chicken stock powder and coat with sesame oil, and then set aside for at least an hour.
  3. Stuff 2 stalks of spring onion and 2 pieces of ginger into chicken cavity, use skewer to seal the opening.
  4. Pour 2 tbsp of cooking oil into rice cooker, add slices of ginger, and place the seasoned chicken with belly facing down in the rice cooker.
  5. Switch on the rice cooker and press the cook button, let it cook until the cook button automatically pops up. Test on doneness using skewer, if juice runs clear, chicken is ready else press down the cook button and let it cook again. ( I repeat two times before the chicken is cooked)
  6. Switch off the power and let the chicken continue to bake in the rice cooker for 5 minutes before remove from rice cooker.
  7. Remove chicken from rice cooker and cut into pieces, pour out the chicken juice and drizzle on the chicken and serve.
CHICKEN RICE
INGREDIENTS:
4 cups Thai Jasmine rice
2 tbsp butter
2-3cm ginger, slice
3-4 cloves whole garlic, skin off
1-2 tsp salt (to taste)
1 tsp chicken stock (optional)
4 ½ cups chicken stock according to rice instructions (or more)
METHOD:
Wash the rice and drain well, pour into rice cooker, leave to soak for half an hour before switch on power. (Rice cooks in this way will be softer.)
Add in garlic, butter and ginger and chicken stock and switch on power to cook. Serve with chicken.
CHILIES SAUCE
INGREDIENTS:
Readymade chilies paste or Fresh red chillies, (for extra hot add in bird eye chilies)
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp chicken stock (from the baked chicken)
Salt to taste

METHOD:
Blend chilies and garlic in a blender then add in chicken stock, lime juice and salt to taste.


客家盐焗鸡

材料:1只鸡 , 姜 几片,   葱 2根
腌料:适量盐/油/鸡精

做法:
首先将鸡洗干净,控干水份,等鸡里外摸干透后,先用精盐把鸡抹上一遍,再用油、鸡精把整只鸡抹匀把盐和鸡精抓在手上,整只鸡上上下下里里外抹上一层,放在旁边待用!时间足够的话可以放一个多小时。准备几片姜。
在洗干净的电饭煲里倒上薄薄的一层油,放入姜片,把葱对半放进腌好的鸡脏里,再把的鸡腹部面朝下放入电饭煲,盖好,插电,按上电闸等到电饭煲自动跳闸,再按一次电闸,这次电饭煲自动跳闸,打开锅盖,用竹签子测试如果汁是清澈的鸡就熟了。关掉电源,让鸡继续在电饭煲焗约5分钟才拿出装盘。把把锅底的油和沉淀的盐酱淋在鸡肉上面。


鸡饭
材料: 米, 1-2 粒蒜头, 适量牛油,鸡汤,鸡精
煮法:
1、把米洗干净,至少搁半小时,饭会比较松软好吃,也比较好煮。
2、把米倒进饭锅里,加入蒜头,适量鸡汤、牛油和盐一起把饭煮熟。

辣椒酱
材料:辣椒或 辣椒酱,小辣椒(视各人喜好而定), 去了皮的蒜头、酸柑汁或柠檬汁
做法:
1、把辣椒,小辣椒和蒜头放进搅拌机搅拌
2、在搅拌好的辣椒里放入适量的盐,倒入滚烫的鸡汤,最后淋上适量酸柑汁或柠檬汁就大功告成。   

8 comments:

  1. Great idea with cooking the chicken in the rice cooker! Definitely will have to try it that way!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Peggy:
    Glad to have you here. Yup, the chicken cooks in this way is hassle free no need to monitor over the heat etc. You get to do other things while having a delicious chicken waiting ahead for you :-P

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is such a heart warming dish! Love your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely recipe Yin, have made this before but not in the rice cooker, I just steamed the chicken.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey, nice site you have here! Keep up the excellent work!


    Wok Duck Cookers

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yin, your cooking is awesome! I did a google search about baked chicken rice and found your site. Just a minor thought: the font for your title: "Hakka Rice Cooker Salt Baked Chicken 客家盐焗鸡 - Featured in Group Recipes" is a little hard to read. Maybe you can change it to another font such as: Arial, Vernada or Tahoma. Best wishes :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there:
      Thanks for your constructive suggestion. I had changed the font, i hope this font is easier to read.
      Hope to see you drop by more often and continue to feedback to me.

      Delete
  7. Thanks for sharing this recipe. My #5 is less than 3 months old and I am always on the look out for easy n nutricious meals to cook for my family.

    ReplyDelete

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