Red cooked chicken with steamed greens

Tam West

This is based on Charmaine Solomon's recipe in her Encyclopedia of Asian Food. I love the combination of the rich umami-flavoured chicken, earthy flavour of vegetable and the creaminess of rice. I use naturally brewed Japanese soy sauce because I like the lighter flavour and the fact that it is chemical-free.

For the chicken

1 7/20 kgs	Chicken, free range, wing tips cut off, rinsed inside and out with cold water and dried with paper towels (Main)
1 cup	Japanese soy sauce, naturally brewed
1 ½ cups	Water
½ cup	Shao Xing Chinese rice cooking wine, available at Asian grocers
1 piece	Ginger, 5 cm, thinly sliced
3	Star anise pods
2	Garlic cloves
3 Tbsp	Sugar
1 bowl	Jasmine rice, steamed, for serving

For the vegetables

6	Silverbeet leaves, stalks cut off and discarded, leaves sliced 3cm, boiled in plenty of water for 5 minutes, cooled under
cold water, squeezed dry
4	Baby bok choy, quartered lengthways
1 head	Broccoli, cut into large bite-sized florets (Main)
150 g	Green beans, stalk ends cut off
2 Tbsp	Sesame oil
1 Tbsp	Sesame seeds, toasted in a dry pan over moderate heat until golden

Directions

To make the chicken

1. Cut down each side of the chicken's backbone with kitchen shears, then cut through the breast so you have two equal halves of chicken without the backbone (which is discarded or frozen for stock).
2. Put the chicken, soy sauce, water, wine, ginger, star anise, garlic and sugar into a saucepan just big enough to hold the chicken. Bring gently to the boil, cover and boil gently for 15 minutes. Turn the chicken over, cover and boil gently a further 15 minutes.
3. Remove chicken from the heat and let stand, covered, for 20 minutes.
4. Lift chicken out of the liquid, place on a board. Carve.
5. Pour some of the cooking liquid into a small bowl to use as a dipping sauce and put the remainder into a bowl, cover and refrigerate for reuse to red-cook other food. It will become more intense in flavour when reused.
6. Serve the chicken with the dipping sauce, steamed jasmine rice and the following vegetables.

To make the vegetables

1. Place the vegetables in a steamer and steam over high heat for 5 minutes or until they are hot and cooked, but still crisp.
2. Remove from the steamer to a warm serving platter.
3. Sprinkle with a little salt, add the sesame oil and seeds and toss.

More chicken recipes from Ray

• Chicken stuffed with pork and roasted with potatoes
• Chicken drumsticks with harissa broth and pearl barley