The soup should also be golden in color with fat bubbles (it means you picked a good, fresh chicken!). When the chicken is ready, the meat should easily come off the bone, and the legs will easily be removed with a pair of chopsticks. Add the soy sauce, black vinegar, salt, rice cooking wine, and goji berries to the pot.Gently simmer the chicken with the lid covered for 1 hour.Add the ginger, garlic, bay leaves, tangerine peel, and astragalus root to a stainless steel mesh strainer. Place the pot back on the stove with the chicken, leg side down.This will make your soup clearer and taste cleaner. Drain the water and rinse clean the pot and chicken.Once boiling, add the chicken to the pot and boil for 5 minutes. Fill a large pot with enough water to cover the chicken.Remove the innards and trim off the butt. Adjust the heat accordingly until you see just a few small bubbles that occasionally break the surface of the water. This helps to keep the meat as tender and moist as possible. You should always cook the black chicken on a gentle simmer. For a 2-pound black chicken, I’ve found that I can achieve this sweet spot with 1 hour and 20 minutes of cooking. You also want to cook the chicken long enough to flavor the soup richly. At this point, the skin will also have a melt-in-your-mouth consistency. If you don’t blanch the chicken first, it’s also likely that the delicious chicken skin will stick onto the bottom of your pot!īlack chicken is the most delicious when the meat is tender enough to fall off the bone. Removing the scum will make the final chicken soup taste smoother for a silky mouthfeel. First, it allows you to remove the “scum”, which are the gummy white bits of protein that form when you first start cooking the chicken. I find that the skin on the black chicken neck is a little too tough to enjoy, and there is usually not that much to eat on the feet compared to conventional chicken feet.īlanching the chicken first, which involves simmering it quickly then draining the water, serves two important purposes. The butt is where the chicken’s preen gland is located, which can have a bitter taste, so it is usually discarded. For this black chicken recipe, I recommend removing the head, neck, butt, and feet. You can also remove any excess parts yourself at home. If your black chicken hasn’t been cleaned yet, ask your butcher to help you remove the guts. Try searching for “black chicken meat for sale” or “silkie chicken meat for sale” online, and look for it at farmer’s markets in your area. If you’re purchasing a frozen chicken, ensure that the best-by date is at least a few months away.īlack chicken meat may also be available for order from local farms. A fresh silkie chicken should have plump-looking meat, and the skin should have a slight shine to it without looking dull. Try checking your local Asian grocery store and look for it in both the fresh and freezer section. I purchase my black chicken frozen at a local Asian market, where they’ve already removed the innards for me. It doesn’t contain too much fat so it’s light enough to enjoy year round, even in the summer. I love how versatile silkie chicken soup is. It’s what makes this soup so invigorating to drink. But don’t underestimate its flavor! American ginseng imparts an earthy fragrance to black chicken soup, with a refreshing bitter aftertaste. Traditional recipes use dried aged tangerine peels, which add an intense umami flavor to the soup.Īmerican ginseng is a popular culinary herb due to its purported benefits for the immune system. What role does a simple piece of tangerine peel play in Chinese chicken soup? A lot, actually! The citrus fragrance helps to balance out any remaining gaminess in the black chicken meat. This is the exact same product that I use. If you’re having a hard time locating astragalus root, you can also find an organic version online that comes in conveniently sized small slices, so you won’t need to break any off by hand. It also offers a pleasant, sweet taste when added to soup. They come in a dried form so they’ll last for a long time.Īstragalus root has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. I purchase goji berries online because I prefer a preservative-free organic version. You can also eat them! They have a raisin-like texture but soften after cooking. Goji berries impart a sweet and umami flavor onto the soup. Each of them adds a unique flavor to the soup. You might not have cooked with these ingredients before, but I highly recommend including them in your black chicken soup. The main herbal ingredients in this recipe are goji berry, astragalus root, tangerine peel, and American ginseng, all of which you can find at your local Chinese grocery store or online.
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