Magnolia chicken (Yu Lan Ji)

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-30 10:20

Ingredients (serves 4-6):

1 free-range chicken, 1.2-1.5 kg

16 slices of Yunnan Xuanwei or Jinhua ham, thinly cut

2 cm knob ginger, bashed up

2 stalks spring onions, sliced into 2-cm lengths

1 tablespoon sea salt

1 head broccoli

1 tablespoon corn starch

(Mixed with 1 cup cooled chicken stock to make a slurry)

6 slices of peel young ginger, shredded and fried in oil

Method:

1. Clean and rinse room-temperature chicken and rub inside and out with sea salt. Take care not to break the skin. Stuff the bashed up ginger and spring onions into the stomach cavity.

2. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. The pot must be large enough so the boiling water completely covers the chicken.

3. Make sure water is at a rolling boil and carefully lower chicken into the pot. Boil for 12 minutes and then turn off the heat. Let the chicken sit until water is completely cooled.

4. By then, the chicken should be cooked. Remove from the pot, let it rest for five minutes and chop it into serving pieces. Place breast meat in the center of the plate and arrange wings and drumsticks alongside. Place lightly blanched broccoli florets along edge of plate.

5. Insert slices of Yunnan ham in-between slices of chicken breast meat. Carefully pour the corn starch and chicken stock mixture over the chicken.

6. Steam the whole platter for 5 minutes over high heat. Garnish with fried shredded young ginger.

Food notes:

If you can boil a pot of water, you can make this dish. It is a Cantonese dish that is made very often to entertain guests. The main thing is the presentation, with the creamy richness of the chicken against the deep pink of the ham taking on the colors of the magnolia. If you stretch your imagination, the fried shredded ginger actually looks like the large stamens of the magnolia!