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Hóng Kitchen

Drunken Chicken

Chinese · Easy · Serves 4

Drunken Chicken
Drunken Chicken
The Shanghainese cold table's own and the wine-bath doctrine's master: a whole chicken poached at the sub-simmer (the Hainanese record's patience), then submerged in the Shaoxing wine's cold bath with the ginger and the scallion — the chicken's flesh drinking the wine's fragrance through its 4-hour (or overnight) chill, and served cold in its wine-scented slices. The drunken chicken (the zui ji — the "drunken chicken," the wine's own name) is the Jiangnan cold table's most elegant and the wine bath's whole technique: the cold's absorption.

Quantities live in the recipe card.

The chicken

The poach

The wine bath — the drunken's own

- The poach's patience: the chicken at the sub-simmer 35–40 minutes (the Hainanese record's whole doctrine — the water never boiling, the skin's silk), then the 10-minute ice bath's set.
Step 1. Poach, ice, and bone. The chicken poached at the barest tremor 35–40 minutes (the probe's 72–75 °C at the thigh), iced 10 minutes, and the meat lifted from the bones in whole pieces (the breast's fillets and the thighs' — the boning the wine bath's own permission, the boneless pieces the absorption's whole surface). Checkpoint — the flesh is just-set and juicy, the skin's silk set by the ice, and the pieces boned and whole — the wine bath's canvas ready.
Step 2. The wine bath and the 4-hour chill. The wine, the cooled stock, the soy, sugar, aromatics, and salt mixed in the container that fits the chicken's pieces — the pieces submerged (the liquid's full cover), and the container refrigerated 4 hours minimum, overnight the master's measure. Checkpoint — at the chill's end (4 hours or the overnight), the wine's fragrance has carried into the flesh's whole depth — the first slice's aroma is the Shaoxing's own — and the flesh's colour carries a faint, even wine-gold from the bath. The absorption's proof is the scent and the colour's combined evidence. Chef’s Note — the cold's absorption is the wine bath's own physics and the drunken's whole technique: the poached chicken's flesh, warm at its lift, carries its moisture in an open, relaxed fibre (the poach's patience having set the proteins gently and the ice's shock having firmed the surface without the tightening), and the submersion in the cold wine's bath — the flesh's own temperature's descent drawing the wine's liquid inward by the simple physics of the concentration gradient — delivers the fragrance through the flesh's depth over the hours' chill. The warm chicken in the warm wine's bath (the common error) cooks further in the wine's heat and the flesh's tightening closes the fibres to the absorption — the cold's bath, the cold's chicken, and the patience the three laws.
Step 3. Serve cold, sliced, with the bath's splash. The pieces sliced thin (the wine-gold at each slice's surface), plated cold, and a spoonful of the wine bath's liquid poured around at the plate. Checkpoint — the eating test: the first slice's cold silk — the wine's fragrance arriving first and the flesh's savour behind, the soy's salt and the sugar's round at the finish — the cold table's most elegant and the wine bath's whole doctrine at the Jiangnan table's ceremonial course.
Drunken Chicken

Drunken Chicken

Prep: 20 minutes, plus 4 hours chilling · Cook: 40 minutes · Total: About 5 hours · Serves 4

Ingredients

The chicken

  • 1 whole chicken, about 1.2 kg (or 4 large chicken thighs, the home's honest cut)

The poach

  • Water to cover, with 4 slices ginger (30 g), 2 scallions, 1 tbsp (15 ml) Shaoxing wine
  • The 10-minute ice bath (the Hainanese record's set)

The wine bath — the drunken's own

  • 300 ml / 309 g Shaoxing wine (the drink's bottle)
  • 200 ml / 205 g of the poaching's own stock, cooled
  • 2 tbsp (30 ml) light soy sauce, 1 tsp (5 g) sugar
  • 3 slices ginger, 1 scallion, 2 star anise
  • ½ tsp (2 g) salt

Instructions

  1. Poach, ice, and bone. The chicken poached at the barest tremor 35–40 minutes (the probe's 72–75 °C at the thigh), iced 10 minutes, and the meat lifted from the bones in whole pieces (the breast's fillets and the thighs' — the boning the wine bath's own permission, the boneless pieces the absorption's whole surface). Checkpoint — the flesh is just-set and juicy, the skin's silk set by the ice, and the pieces boned and whole — the wine bath's canvas ready.
  2. The wine bath and the 4-hour chill. The wine, the cooled stock, the soy, sugar, aromatics, and salt mixed in the container that fits the chicken's pieces — the pieces submerged (the liquid's full cover), and the container refrigerated 4 hours minimum, overnight the master's measure. Checkpoint — at the chill's end (4 hours or the overnight), the wine's fragrance has carried into the flesh's whole depth — the first slice's aroma is the Shaoxing's own — and the flesh's colour carries a faint, even wine-gold from the bath. The absorption's proof is the scent and the colour's combined evidence.
  3. Serve cold, sliced, with the bath's splash. The pieces sliced thin (the wine-gold at each slice's surface), plated cold, and a spoonful of the wine bath's liquid poured around at the plate. Checkpoint — the eating test: the first slice's cold silk — the wine's fragrance arriving first and the flesh's savour behind, the soy's salt and the sugar's round at the finish — the cold table's most elegant and the wine bath's whole doctrine at the Jiangnan table's ceremonial course.

Storage, Make-Ahead & Variations

- The drunken chicken keeps 3 days in its bath (the flavour deepening) — the cold table's standing treasure. The drunken shrimp and the drunken crab (the raw's own risky version at the coastal table) run the wine bath at the shellfish's register. - The canon's seat: the wine-bath doctrine's master — the cold's absorption and the sub-simmer's patience — at the Jiangnan cold table's ceremonial course.