醉雞

I know drunken chicken looks presentable and impressive but turns out it is pretty easy to make. I remember I was in awe when my very good friend S told me that she made this with her sister back in hm.. say Form 4. This dish goes really well with the Shanghainese vegetable rice, recipe of which will be shared in the next post. 

I managed to find all the ingredients in just one street of the YauMaTei market. Very amused and really enjoyed the process. Will share with you more about my market experience later. Have to get back to revision, bye!

Drunken Chicken- Find writing this recipe particularly difficult!

(serving: 8)

Ingredients- 4 whole fresh chicken drumsticks, 2.5 cups of Shaoxing wine 紹興酒 and a little bit more for marinating, 1/3 cup of fish sauce, 8 tablespoon of sugar (depending on personal taste), 3-4 slices of ginger, a little bit of spring onion, a handful of soaked wolf berries 杞子(keep the water, they taste nice and sweet), salt and white pepper, 2 bottles of VERY COLD WATER

Preparation

1. Wash the drumsticks with coarse salt. Dry them slightly with kitchen napkins. Cut each of them into 2 sections for easy preparation.

2. Peel and slice the ginger. Rinse the spring onion and cut them into 3 sections.

3. Place the above ingredients in a plate, splash in some Shaoxing wine, and add in salt and white pepper. Mix well.

4. Sprinkle on top some wolf berries.

5. Steam the chicken with medium fire for around 15 minutes until the drumsticks are all cooked. You may test it by poking a toothpick into the drumsticks, if there is no blood coming out that means the drumsticks are already cooked.

6. Take out the drumksticks, leaving the sauce behind, and rinse the drumsticks with the cold water. This step is very important as you'll see the skin will shrink as you wash them the cold water. This helps you to get very chewy and "al dente" chicken skin! :) 

7. Leave the drumsticks there in the cold water for around 10 minutes until they are all warm.

8. While you're waiting for the drumsticks to cool down, you may prepare the Shaoxing wine sauce. Get a big bowl and mix the 2.5 cups of Shaoxng wine, the fish sauce and the leftover water from soaking the wolf berries.

9. Go back to the steamer and you'll find around a cup of chicken sauce left on the plate. Mix in to it the sugar.

10. Pour this chicken sauce into the Shaoxing-fish sauce. Taste and see if you prefer more sugar.

11. Soak the drumsticks into this big bowl of Shaoxing and leave them there for a few hours. Before you go to bed, just shove it in the refrigerator. Leave it there for at least a day before consumption. 3 days should be perfect.

One side point, take it out from the fridge the other morning and you'll find the horrifying layer of solidified chicken fat. Remove them with a fork or spoon, you'll feel so accomplished afterwards.

12. To serve, cut the drumsticks into smaller pieces as shown in the picture and spoon over them the Shaoxing sauce. Enjoy!