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Chicken symbolizes a family reunion when served as a whole. Therefore most of the Chinese families will prepare  chicken in a variety of recipes to be served during the Chinese New Year. I remember steamed chicken (白切雞) was one of the favorite traditional dishes served in my family during Chinese New Year. The appearance of the steamed chicken looked so unattractive and tasteless. That was my thought in my childhood but after I tasted it with the ginger-scallion dipping sauce for one time, I was amazed and started liking it.

For the first day of Chinese New Year, having planned to cook the steamed chicken, I’ve prepared the salty water chicken (鹽水雞) instead. It is a recipe from my co-worker, Ray whom is so kind to share with me. I thought the recipe is more alike the steamed chicken but I was wrong. It’s a little bit complicated and time consuming as well as some cooking skills required. The entire process was fun though because I never really poach a whole chicken before.

The most essential part of preparing this chicken recipe is poaching the chicken. You need to follow the procedures below precisely to give you a nicely cooked and not overdone or underdone chicken especially if you are preparing it for the first time. My first try on this recipe wasn’t too bad. The chicken was satisfactorily cooked but it wasn’t perfect because it was supposedly to taste a little bit more salty. The problem was the saturating soup I made might not be salty enough. It is hard for me to advise on the amount of salt needed to be added in the saturating soup because there are several factors such as the size of pot, the amount of water and personal preference. I suggest the best way is for you to taste the saturating soup yourself (not drink it but taste it) while boiling it and add in extra salts if needed.

Not forgetting to mention, it is recommended to get a free range chicken instead of a poultry farming chicken. This is because most poultry farming chickens are big and over 2lbs. I named this dish as wealthy chicken (富貴雞) for the Chinese New Year and hope it will bring wealth to all of you. Anyway, you can try this dish anytime. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 around 2lb free range chicken (whole chicken)
Chili pepper for garnish (sliced)
Cilantro leaves for garnish

For the saturating soup:
1 2-inch ginger (sliced)
4-5 stalks of scallion (sliced lengthwise)
3-4 star anises (八角)
5 tbsp salt
Water enough to cover the chicken

For dipping sauce:
3 stalks scallion, white parts only with half inch green (minced finely)
1 2-inch ginger (minced finely)
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup oil

For poaching:
Water enough to cover the chicken

Cooking method:

Saturating soup:

1. Bring the water to boil in large pot and add in all the ingredients. Note: Make sure the pot is large enough to fit the chicken in and the water is enough to cover the whole chicken during poaching.
2. Simmer for 35 minutes with medium heat and make sure check the water level during simmer. This is to make sure the soup is good to cover the chicken later. Add in water during simmer if needed.
3. Turn off the heat, cover and let the soup cools to room temperature. Set it aside.

Chicken:

1. Bring the water to boil in large pot. Note: Make sure the pot is large enough to fit the chicken in and the water is enough to cover the whole chicken during poaching.
2. Add the chicken and wait for the water to be re-boiled again. Once the water is boiled, cover the pot with its lid and simmer for 5 minutes with medium heat.
3. After 5 minutes, turn off the heat, and allow the chicken to poach undisturbed in the hot water for 15 minutes.
4. After 15 minutes, take out the chicken from the pot immediately and shock the whole chicken in ice cold water (cold water and ice cubes) for 3 minutes. In the meantime, reheat the water in the pot.
5. Once the water in the pot is boiled, repeat step 2 to 4.
6. When you have done with 2 rounds of poaching and cooling, now you can soak the chicken into the saturating soup you made earlier. Cover and allow the chicken to saturate undisturbed until room temperature.
7. Put the whole pot into fridge overnight (over 12 hours). The soup will saturate the chicken.
8. Take the chicken out from the soup and cut it into pieces.
9. Serve cold.

Ginger-scallion dipping sauce:

1. Mix the minced scallion and minced ginger well in a bowl.
2. Heat up the oil in pan.
3. Pound the boiled oil into the bowl and mix well with the minced scallion and ginger.
4. Add salt and mix well.