Boon Tong Kee (Chicken Rice)

Ingredients

for the chicken

1 whole 1.8kg white-skinned chicken
50 gram ginger, sliced
2 bulbs spring onion, split into half and tied together
20 gram Salt

for the rice

1 kilogram rice

30 gram garlic
30 gram shallots
40 gram old ginger
20 gram salt
10 gram Sugar
20 gram chicken essence
100 gram chicken fat
1.2 kilogram chicken stock

Preparation Method

1. Chicken: Put the chicken into a large pot. Press its head down and add water until it covers the whole chicken to gauge the amount of water needed to boil the chicken.

2. Chicken: Take the chicken out. Then add the salt to the water. Put in the sliced ginger and spring onion and boil the water.

3. Chicken: When the water is bubbling, hold the chicken by the head and put the rest of the body back into the pot. Lift it up and repeat the motion five times, so that the boiling water will cook the insides of the chicken.

4. Chicken: Put the whole chicken back into the pot, making sure that the head is under the water. Then cover the pot and turn off the heat. Leave the chicken in the hot pot for about one hour.

5. Chicken: For authentic Cantonese-style chicken, take the chicken out only half an hour before you serve. then wash the chicken under running tap water or ice water. The taste will be slightly blander, but the meat will be more tender.

6. Chicken: Keep the thick stock for the rice.

7. Rice: Wash the rice, so that it can absorb enough water to be cooked properly later. Drain the water and leave the rice to dry for half an hour.

8. Rice: Dice the garlic, shallots and old ginger. Mix them together.

9. Rice: Take a spoonful of the mixture (about 20g) and fry it in the chicken fat until the mixture turns golden brown. Pour in the chicken stock. Add the salt, sugar and chicken essence. Stir till they dissolve completely.

10. Rice: Add the rice to the boiling stock. Stir until most of the stock evaporates,

leaving a pot of fragrant, moist rice. Then serve the chicken and rice.