Vietnamese Poached Chicken with Dipping Sauces (and leftovers)

I think this is an “occasion dish”. The boy is moving the coffee table back and laying a rug down so we can eat this on cushions on the floor.

1 whole free-range organic chicken

A handful coriander, roughly torn

Ginger Lime Dipping Sauce

1tsp chopped garlic

3 small chillies, chopped

3tbsp sugar

3tbsp ginger, minced

1tsp fish sauce

2tbsp lime juice

3tbsp water

Sweet Soy Chilli Dipping Sauce

3tbsp sweet soy sauce

2tbsp water

1tbsp ginger, minced

1tsp chilli paste

2 red chillies in very thin rings

Steamed rice to serve

Steamed pak choi to serve, hoi sin sauce to dress it

The chicken is the star here so it needs to be better than good. Free range organic is expensive but it is so good you will end up stretching it over several meals.

Put about 4 litres of water into a large pan and once it reaches a rolling boil, lower the chicken in. Let it cook for 10 minutes, then turn off the heat and cover with the lid. Leave it for one hour to poach very gently. Nothing goes into the water – this will taste only of chicken; the rest of the flavours come from the dipping sauces.

Meanwhile make those dipping sauces. For the ginger/lime sauce, mash the garlic, chilli, sugar and ginger with a pestle and mortar, and then mix with the lime juice and water.  For the Sweet soy and chilli version, first make sure you have sweet soy, which contains molasses. I guess ketjap manis would do if you can’t find it but it may need more water to loosen it. Combine everything. Serve both dipping sauces in small elegant bowls.

Listen to a drama on Radio 4 with the boy. Get him to put the rice on while you steam the pak choi and sprinkle with a little bottled hoi sin sauce.

Lift the chicken out of its broth and wrap it in cling film so it doesn’t dry out. Juiciness is everything here. Let it rest and get cool enough to handle. While you could shred the meat off it’s more authentic to keep the bone in. Use a heavy cleaver to chop the meat into small, slightly larger than bite sized pieces. Garnish with the coriander.

To eat, pick up a piece with chopsticks, peel off the skin and dip into whichever sauce you prefer. I also have a small bowl of sriracha, though the boy isn’t touching it.

I’m doing three things with the leftovers, as the chicken is too good to waste.  Start with picking all the meat off the bones. The cat can have the bits that you can’t easily glean meat from, like the knuckles and wing tips.

1)      Some of the shredded chicken is making fried rice, with the leftover rice and pak choi, with finely sliced spring onion and light soy. Add anything else you have like canned sweet corn, peas, mushrooms, sliced chillies or chopped green beans.

2)      Some of the chicken is being marinated in the ginger sauce and going in a baguette for the boy’s lunch, along with mayonnaise, grated carrot, diced cucumber, a deseeded chopped chilli  and coriander leaves

3)      The carcass and any remaining chicken is going back in its cooking broth with the green bits of the spring onions, above, more garlic, chillies, ginger, coriander stems and lemongrass . Strain. Put any obvious big bits of chicken back in the broth. Chuck in any finely chopped veg you have to hand.  Add king prawns and shitake mushrooms, with a good splash of soy  and garnish with coriander leaves for a warming soup.

I love the way the boy doesn’t notice this is 4 meals spun out from 1 chicken.