Chilled Drunken Chicken

Chilled drunken chicken is something that I’m fond of ordering at a restaurant. I love the squirt of the alcoholic juices in my mouth as my teeth clamp down on the cold chicken flesh. And in general, this might sound base but the drunker it is the better it is.

I’ve been toying with the idea of attempting this recipe, but the only one I had at hand was Jeremy Leung’s very modern and chic chilled drunken chicken topped with shaved shao xing wine ice that is beautifully embellished with ginkgo nuts, edamame, lily bubs and Chinese wolfberries. It was a little too fancy for what I was feeling at the moment, so I’ve tried to strip down the recipe to what I needed, which is really a basic chilled drunken chicken recipe, and its easy… make a portion, stick it in the refrigerator and you’ve got something to look forward to in 24 hours.

Basic chilled drunken chicken
Serves 6-8 as an appetiser



Marinade
500 ml water
3 spring onions cut into 5-cm lengths
3 slices of ginger, 0.2-cm thick
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 star anise
1 cinnamon sticks, 3-cm long
2 bay leaves
20 g salt
150 ml shao xing wine
1 teaspoons Chinese rice wine

Chicken
1.5 litres water
5 spring onions cut into 5-cm lengths
5 slices of ginger, 0.2-cm thick
5 tablespoons shao xing wine
1 chicken, about 1.4 kg

To prepare marinade: Bring water to the boil all ingredients except shao xing wine and Chinese rice wine. Lower heat and simmer for 3 minutes, then remove from heat and allow to cool before stirring shao xing and rice wine in.

To prepare chicken: Bring water to the boil and add in spring onions, ginger and shao xing wine. Lower the heat and simmer chicken, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes until cooked. Drain and plunge chicken immediately into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. When cool enough to handle, debone chicken and place in marinade. Set aside in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours.