Steam-Pot Chicken (汽锅鸡)

// SUPPLY LIST

// OPERATIONS

1. 1 If your Jianshui pot is new, submerge pot and lid in cold water overnight (at least 8 hours), then stand the empty pot over a pan of boiling water and steam it for 30 minutes to drive off the raw-clay smell; from then on treat it as fragile - never over a direct flame, never a cold pot filled with boiling water, never a hot pot set down on cold stone or metal, or it will crack. Size the bird to the pot, not the other way round: a 22 cm pot holds about 2.5 l, and once the central chimney and the two-thirds fill rule have taken their share you have room for roughly 1.3 kg of chopped chicken, which is what a 1.5 kg whole bird yields. An 18 cm pot takes about 1 kg of pieces, so buy a 1.2 kg bird and drop the salt to 7 g. A lidded bowl in a steamer is not a substitute - it gives you a fraction of the broth and none of the chimney's circulation, and it is a different dish.
2. 2 Joint and chop the chicken through the bone into 4 cm pieces, discarding the wing tips and tail, and weigh it: you are aiming for about 1.3 kg. Put the pieces in a large bowl of cold water to soak for 30 minutes, changing the water twice, until it runs faintly pink rather than red, then drain in a colander for 10 minutes and pat every piece dry. Set the dried matsutake to soak in a small bowl of warm water at the same time so both are ready together. Do not blanch the chicken: there is no simmering liquid in this pot to skim, and blanching pours the soluble protein that becomes your broth straight down the sink, leaving the finished soup thin and papery. The cold soak takes out the blood without taking out the flavour.
3. 3 Squeeze the soaked matsutake hard between your palms and discard the soaking liquid - any water still clinging to them is water that did not come out of the chicken, and it is what turns a concentrated broth into a weak one. Scatter half the ginger coins and all the ham across the base of the dry pot, then pack the chicken around the central chimney with the heaviest bone-in pieces (thigh, drumstick, back) at the bottom and the breast on top, tucking in the remaining ginger, the knotted spring onion whites and the squeezed matsutake as you go, and sprinkling 7 g of the salt between the layers with 2 g held back for the end. Fill the pot no more than two-thirds full and keep the mouth of the chimney completely clear - a piece of chicken lying over it blocks the steam and the pot simply never gets hot enough. Add nothing wet: no water, no stock, no Shaoxing wine, because wine cannot evaporate inside a sealed pot and leaves a raw alcoholic edge, and any liquid you add is liquid that did not come out of the chicken, which is the entire point of the dish.
4. 4 Choose a stockpot or wok whose rim the clay pot sits on cleanly and squarely, fill it with 4-5 litres of water (8-10 cm deep, enough for three hours) and bring it to about 80°C/175°F - steaming, with the first small bubbles lifting off the base, but not yet boiling. Seat the loaded clay pot on the rim now and put its lid on, while the metal is hot but the steam is still gentle: lowering cold, loaded clay onto a hard rolling boil is exactly the thermal shock that cracks these pots, and it also forces you to seal the joint over a scalding rim.
5. 5 Mix the flour with about 40 ml water to a stiff, barely tacky paste that holds a rope without sagging - if it smears on your palm it is too wet, so work in another spoonful of flour - then roll it into two ropes, press one into the joint where the clay pot meets the steamer rim and the other around the lid, and smooth each flat with a wet thumb so nothing whistles out. Only now raise the heat and bring the water underneath to a rolling boil at 100°C/212°F, so the clay comes up to temperature with it. A leaking joint bleeds vapour into the kitchen instead of into the pot: you lose perhaps a third of your broth and the meat takes an hour longer to come good.
6. 6 Steam over a steady rolling boil for 3 hours, keeping the heat high enough that the steam is audibly working but not so high that the water thrashes and spits, and check the level in the outer pan at the one-hour and two-hour marks; if it has fallen below 4 cm, break the seal at one point, pour boiling water from a kettle down the inside of the pan, and patch the paste back over. Never top up with cold water - it stalls the steam for ten minutes and the thermal shock can crack the clay.
7. 7 At 2 hours 30 minutes lift the lid for no more than fifteen seconds, scatter in the goji berries, and replace it; added at the start they collapse completely and turn the broth cloyingly sweet.
8. 8 At 3 hours the pot should hold 300-400 ml of clear pale-gold broth that came entirely out of the bird, a skewer should slide into the thickest part of the thigh with no resistance, and the drumstick meat should part from the bone under light chopstick pressure while still holding its shape. If the broth is cloudy the boil underneath was too violent - drop the heat next time; if there is less than 200 ml, the seal leaked, so reseal it and give it another 30 minutes.
9. 9 Turn off the heat, peel away the flour seal, and let the pot stand on the steamer for 10 minutes with the lid on: the meat is saturated and slightly swollen from three hours of steam, and this short rest lets it settle and draw juice back in instead of shedding it the moment it is disturbed. Then lift the pot off using dry folded cloths - a damp cloth conducts the heat straight through to your hands - onto a wooden board or a thick trivet, never onto bare stone or metal.
10. 10 Lay a folded sheet of kitchen paper flat on the surface of the broth and lift it away two or three times to take off the worst of the fat, leaving a thin gold gloss rather than a slick - a mature bird can throw 3-4 tbsp - then taste and correct with the reserved 2 g salt and the white pepper. It should taste of concentrated chicken and warm ginger and nothing else; if it tastes of the ham, you used too much.
11. 11 Make the Yunnan dipping saucer while the pot rests: stir the toasted chilli flakes, light soy sauce, chopped coriander, sliced spring onion green and 2 tbsp of the hot broth together until the flakes darken and swell slightly, and divide between four small dishes. Take the broth for this from the pot after skimming, not before, or the saucer turns greasy.
12. 12 Carry the pot to the table with the lid on and open it there, because the first rush of steam is half the dish, then serve the broth first in small bowls and drink it plain before anything else touches it; eat the chicken afterwards, dipped in the chilli saucer, with plain steamed rice and a plate of blanched greens alongside.

// CLASSIFICATIONS