THREE CUP CHICKEN
COMPLIMENTARY RECIPE
“Here’s a dish that originated in south China’s Jiangxi Province and one that has become incredibly popular in Malaysia. It’s served as ‘confinement food’, fed to women in the weeks before and after they have given birth, to build up their strength and help them properly recuperate. In Malaysia, as in China, there’s an entire repertoire of these confinement dishes and even today, serving them to expectant and new mothers is taken very seriously. This dish is called ‘three cup chicken’ because, originally, cooks used a cup each of soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil in the dish. Traditionally it is cooked in a clay pot and this definitely adds another flavour dimension to the chicken. Even though the clay pots look rather fragile, you can actually put them over a naked flame; the trick is, you need to give them a long, overnight soaking in cold water before you first use a new one, otherwise it will most likely crack. Once soaked though, your clay pot will last for years.” - Chef Luke Nguyen
SERVES 4-6, AS PART OF A SHARED MEAL
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons sesame oil
6 garlic cloves, peeled
8 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and very finely sliced
450 g chicken drumsticks, chopped into 4 cm pieces through the bone
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 ½ tablespoons kecap manis
3 tablespoons shaoxing rice wine
1 large handful, Thai basil leaves
3 spring onions, sliced into 4 cm lengths, to garnish
steamed jasmine rice, to serve
METHOD
Place a 4 litre clay pot on the stove over a high heat. Add the sesame oil and whole garlic cloves and stir-fry for 30 seconds, then add the sliced ginger and sauté until fragrant.
Add the chopped chicken to the pot and stir-fry on a high heat for 2 minutes or until browned on all sides, then add the light soy sauce, kecap manis and 2 tablespoons of shaoxing rice wine and stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Cover with a lid, reduce the heat to medium–low and cook for 5–8 minutes, until the liquid has reduced to a glossy, sticky sauce and the chicken pieces are cooked through.
Return the heat to high, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of shaoxing rice wine and stir in the basil leaves. Remove from the heat.
Serve the chicken in the clay pot, garnished with the spring onion pieces and accompanied by steamed jasmine rice.