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One 1.5 kg chicken (preferably
free-range chicken)
¼ cup salt
For the marinade:
3 tablespoons Mei Kuei Lu Chiew
(Chinese rose wine) or gin
One 3-inch cinnamon stick, broken into 4
pieces
2 pieces eight-star anise
1 tablespoon sugar
1½ teaspoons salt
Pinch freshly ground white pepper
For the stuffing:
1½ tablespoons peanut oil
1½ cups diced onion
½ cup pork fat, cut into
⅛-inch dice
6 dried black shiitake mushrooms,
washed, soaked to softness, stems discarded,
and caps diced into ½-inch
pieces
¾ cup preserved mustard greens, washed
5 times to cleanse of sand salt,
leaves opened and rinsed,
squeezed dry and finely sliced
1 tablespoon Shao-Hsing wine (Chinese
cooking wine) or dry sherry
1½ teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
¾ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch freshly ground white pepper
For the dough:
5 cups high-gluten flour
2 cups hot water
2½ teaspoons peanut oil
Special equipment needed:
1 yard cheesecloth or 2 large lotus
leaves, soaked in water for 20 minutes until soft,
washed and dried or 2 large
pieces of wax paper.
2 pieces 2-feet heavy-duty foil
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Method:
Clean the chicken thoroughly, remove fat
and membranes, and wash under cold running water. Sprinkle 1/4
cup salt on the outside of the chicken, rub well, rinse, and dry.
In a small bowl, stir together the marinade ingredients and rub the
inside and outside with it. Set the chicken aside.
To prepare the stuffing, heat a wok over
high heat for 30 seconds, add the peanut oil, and coat the wok with it
using a spatula. When a wisp of white smoke appears, add the
onion and cook until light brown, about 5 minutes. Lower the
heat to medium, add the pork fat, and cook, stirring until
translucent. Add the mushrooms and mustard greens and mix well.
Turn the heat back to high, add the Shao Hsing wine, and mix all the ingredients
together. Add the sesame oil, five-spice powder, salt, sugar and
pepper and mix. Remove from the heat, place in a bowl, and
reserve.
To prepare the dough, place the flour in
the center of the work surface and make a well in the center.
Add the hot water slowly with one hand as you mix with the other.
When the water is absorbed, knead for about 2 minutes to make a dough.
Coat your hands with peanut oil and rub the dough with some pressure
to coat it. Rub your hands on the work surface as well.
Flatten the dough until it is large enough to wrap the chicken
completely.
Stuff the chicken by loosely putting the
stuffing into the body cavity. Close the neck and tail openings
with skewers. Wrap the chicken completely in the cheesecloth or
whichever material used. Place the wrapped chicken in the center
of the flattened dough and wrap the chicken, sealing the edges by
pressing closed with your fingers. Spread out the foil and place
the chicken, breast side up, on it. Enfold the chicken, closing
the foil.
Place the wrapped chicken in a roasting
pan and bake in the preheated oven for an hour. Lower the heat
to 160°C and bake for 3 hours more. Turn off the heat, remove
the chicken from the oven, and remove the foil. Cut through the
dough with kitchen shears and make a large opening. Scoop out
pieces of chicken and stuffing with a serving spoon and serve
together.
Note: The covering
insulates the chicken. It will remain hot enough to serve if removed
from the oven 1 to 2 hours before serving.
This famous and most elaborate dish
from Beijing derives its name from a folktale: A beggar, without a
home or food, stole a chicken from a farm. As he has no proper
kitchen and equipment to cook it, he covered it with mud, made a fire
in a hole in the ground, and baked the chicken. It is said that
despite this tale, the people in Beijing prefer to call this dish Fu
Guai Gai or "Rich and Noble Chicken" because they feel that this
special chicken dish is too rich a preparation to carry the classic
name "beggar".
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