Free-range chicken New Year dishes on the table, good cooking keeps you company for a great New Year
As the New Year festival draws nearer, the family shopper or the head of the kitchen starts buying New Year goods. Whether ordering New Year dishes online, or buying fresh ingredients to cook at home, whether it is whole poached chicken, roast chicken, or all kinds of braised dishes and clay-pot simmered soups, among all the dishes there simply must be "chicken." That is because "eating chicken to start a family" carries the meaning of wishing the family fortune prosperity, and "chicken" (ji) is a homophone of "auspicious" (ji), also symbolizing great good fortune and great profit.
Taiwan, China's meat chickens can be divided by feather color into "colored-feather chickens" and "white-feathered broilers." Colored-feather chickens are also called free-range chickens; they have a long rearing period and plenty of exercise, and are usually eaten only after sexual maturity. In the past agricultural era, almost every household had its own backyard chickens, and chicken came to the table only on special occasions. Therefore, in traditional Chinese festivals and sacrificial rites, free-range chicken plays an important role; while the white-feathered broiler, a breed introduced from abroad, can now be marketed after just 35 days of growth, with loose meat texture, mainly supplying bulk ingredients for fast-food restaurants or chicken cutlet shops.
Whole free-range chicken utilization, clever tips for avoiding waste
Good ingredients deserve to be used with care. Different parts of the free-range chicken have different textures and mouthfeels, so you can try different cooking methods. Take a female hybrid free-range chicken as an example:
(1) Chicken breast meat can be paired with a lettuce salad
(2) The two legs are just right for making Shaoxing drunken chicken
(3) Other parts can be cut into pieces and used as the ingredients for sesame oil chicken rice.
Never throw away the chicken carcass; it is an excellent material for simmering chicken stock. Simmer the chicken carcass together with onion and carrot, and after the stock comes to a boil, skim off the foam, turn to medium-low heat and continue simmering for 40 minutes; that is a useful chicken stock. After the chicken stock cools, it can be poured into an ice cube tray for storage. When you want to stir-fry vegetables or cook noodle soup on ordinary days, add a homemade chicken stock ice cube, and the dish will be even fresher and sweeter.
Chicken feet can be collected and kept frozen, and once you have a certain amount, braise the chicken feet together, or add them to soups when cooking on ordinary days and simmer them together with the soup, which can increase the smooth, silky mouthfeel of the broth. A whole chicken is useful from head to tail, as long as everyone is willing to use it and knows how to use it.
For your first encounter with a free-range chicken, you do not need to immediately challenge the most difficult task of chopping the chicken. Everyone is welcome to roll up their sleeves and make free-range chicken dishes that belong to their own family memories. The taste of home, the taste of Mom, will be diluted and forgotten in the ready-made meal packs from supermarkets and restaurants; only in cooking made with your own hands and warmth at home will it be passed down. Let the food you love have a process, and the memory of home will be vivid and distinct.
Free-range chicken New Year recipe collection
[Heartwarming Sesame Oil Chicken Rice]
Ingredients:
2 boneless chicken legs, 1 tablespoon salt
Shaoxing sauce: a little goji berry, half a slice of angelica, 5 red dates, 150cc Shaoxing wine, 2 tablespoons salt, 1/2 spoon sugar, 150cc boiled water
Method:
1. Rub both sides of the chicken legs with salt and soak them in Shaoxing wine for about half an hour
2. Roll the marinated chicken legs tightly in aluminum foil, twisting both ends tightly like a candy shape
3. Put into an electric cooker, steam with 1.5 cups of water in the outer pot, then place in cold water to cool quickly
4. Boil all the ingredients for the Shaoxing sauce, then let cool
5. Add the chicken legs with the aluminum foil removed, then refrigerate for more than one day before serving
*Recommended chicken breeds: black-feathered free-range chicken (female), old-fashioned chicken (female), hybrid free-range chicken (female)
Chicken and good fortune for the whole year!
When eating chicken during the New Year festival, of course you should choose free-range chicken. In 2018, Taipei Livestock Products Marketing Co. and the Fengnian Society Foundation jointly planned the "Eating Chicken Is Great" calendar, pairing the characteristics of different free-range chickens with seasonal ingredients and serving up twelve months of free-range chicken dishes, wishing everyone "chicken and good fortune" for a whole year!