Dongjiang Salt-Baked Chicken
Distinctive preparation yields a rich aroma, crisp golden skin, tender juicy meat, and savory flavor that reaches the bone.
Ingredients
Plump tender hen (slaughtered, plucked, gutted, washed, hung to dry, with claws and beak tips removed)
1 (about 1500 g)
Ginger slices
10 g
Scallion strips
10 g
Cilantro
25 g
Coarse salt
2500 g
Fine salt
13 g
MSG
7 g
Star anise powder
2.5 g
Sand ginger powder
2.5 g
Sesame oil
1 g
Cooked lard
120 g
Peanut oil
15 g
Gauze paper
2
Instructions
1
Prepare seasonings and paper
Heat a wok over low heat, add 4 g fine salt and warm it, stir in the sand ginger powder, mix well, remove, and divide into 3 small dishes, adding 15 g lard to each dish for dipping. Mix 75 g lard, 5 g fine salt, sesame oil, and MSG into a flavoring sauce. Brush one sheet of gauze paper with peanut oil and set aside.
2
Process the chicken
Slaughter the live chicken, pluck, gut, and wash it, hang to dry, remove the claw tips and beak shell, make a cut on each side of the wings and one cut on the neck bone, then rub 3.5 g fine salt evenly inside the cavity. Add the ginger, scallions, and star anise powder. First wrap in a sheet of ungreased gauze paper, then wrap in the oiled gauze paper.
3
Salt-bake
Heat a wok over high heat, add the coarse salt and stir-fry until very hot, remove 1/4 of the salt and place in an earthenware pot. Put the chicken into the pot, cover with the remaining salt, cover the pot tightly with a lid, and bake over low heat for about 20 minutes until cooked.
4
Debone and plate
Take the chicken out, remove the gauze paper, peel off the chicken skin (set aside). Tear the chicken meat into pieces, separate the bones, add the flavoring sauce and mix well, then plate (bones on the bottom, meat in the middle, skin on top), arranging into the shape of a chicken. Place cilantro on both sides. Serve with the sand ginger oil-salt dipping sauce.
