Chicken in Aspic
Beijing-style summer cold dish of jellied chicken: a whole hen is steamed together with pork skin until tender, then chilled and sliced into strips. The finished dish has a clear, glossy color and a cool, silky texture.
Ingredients
Whole hen (1000 g, deboned after boiling through)
1
Pork skin (fat scraped clean, boiled through)
350 g
Scallion segments
50 g
Ginger slices
2 slices
Shaoxing wine
a pinch
Salt
a pinch
Chicken stock (to cover the chicken)
1000 g
Instructions
1
Prepare the chicken
Boil the hen until fully cooked through, then remove it from the pot. Strip away all the large and small bones, keeping only the drumsticks, breast meat, and wings, and arrange them together in a heatproof container. Reserve the remaining meat and bones for other uses.
2
Steam and chill until set
Scrape all the fat off the pork skin, boil it until tender, and lay it over the chicken pieces. Pour in the chicken stock until the chicken is just covered, then add the scallion segments, ginger slices, salt, and Shaoxing wine. Steam the mixture in a steamer until the chicken is very soft, then discard the pork skin, scallion, and ginger. Transfer the chicken to the refrigerator and chill until the stock sets into a firm jelly.
3
Slice and plate
When ready to serve, lift the chilled chicken out of the aspic and cut it into long strips about 1 inch long and about 1/10 of an inch wide. Arrange the strips neatly on a serving plate and spoon some of the clear chicken jelly over the top before serving cold.
