The institution of soup is one of the few things separating humanity from the lesser beasts. We are all slaves to heterotrophy, mortally ensnared by the food web, and while we as a species may claim dominion over the natural world, we are by no means exempt from its demands. The act of making stock was likely invented by accident; by boiling foods to cook them, early cooks discovered how the water was in turn informed by their flavor—a practice which evolved into a means by which scraps and carcasses could be salvaged and stretched out into meals of their own. Eventually, however, that liquid would become its own pursuit and humankind would appreciate it for what it was: a canvas, an opportunity, a beauty found in the ripple of our survival. Stock-making transcends our animal, dependent relationship with food, as is not just the consumption of ingredients, but the celebration of their essence. To make stock for its own sake is to put our mortality itself upon the fire—to assert against the world that we will, however humbly and with what little we have available, choose to draw something more than living out of life.
Anyway, here’s how I like to poach chicken to make both stock and chicken.
Place a young chicken in a large pot and add just enough water so that it’s fully submerged. Depending on the size of chicken and the pot there’s a chance you’ll be left with a stubborn gasping patch, but that’s alright. Transfer the pot to a stove and start heating it on medium. Now, start prepping the aromatic components.
Garlic, Ginger, Scallion, Black Peppercorns, Szechuan Peppercorns, Love
For the garlic, I use a whole head. Peel every clove, then either smash or roughly chop them to rupture and increase surface area. Discard peels and throw the chopped cloves in the pot.
Take a good size chunk of fresh ginger (I like one roughly equal in volume to the head of garlic), slice that into quarter-inch-thick slabs and drop them in around the chicken.
This next step might vary depending on your final intentions. If you’re making the ginger-scallion sauce for 白切鸡 then you’ll rinse and dry three bunches of scallions, amputating the green parts. Chop those greens into two-inch pieces (doesn’t have to be pretty) and add them to the pot while reserving the whites and light-green parts for the sauce. If doing some other sauce, just rinse, chop, and add a bunch or two to the pot, including the whites and roots.
Drop in about a teaspoon each of whole black peppercorns and whole Szechuan peppercorns.
At this point you can turn the heat up. The moment it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and cover. Simmer the chicken on low, covered, for about an hour. When the time comes, carefully transfer the chicken into an ice bath (or colander in the sink with running cold water) using some kind of long poultry lifting fork (or another, equally effective apparatus) without pouring out the stock. Bring the stockpot back to the stove and let cool while cooling off the chicken.
Now, at this stage you have to ask yourself what it is that you want—in life and for dinner. For me, the answer for both is often soup. I really like to sauté a bunch of mushrooms and scallions in a large pot for a while before deglazing by straining the chicken stock into it, resulting in an earthier, deeper stock with a lot of body. This is, of course, entirely optional, and you can elect to simply pour the stock through a strainer into an empty pot, but regardless of what you do next, make sure that you do strain the stock. After doing that, I like to taste and season with salt until the flavors exfoliate, then boil it to reduce and concentrate it just a bit while dealing with the chicken.
What to do with all this chicken and all this stock
What we have now is a canvas for your taste and imagination. The chicken as it is now is relatively plain, and the stock is a versatile backdrop of umami and aromatics. I almost always serve the chicken with some kind of sauce and vegetable atop some hot rice, sometimes with stock on the side, sometimes with a little in there like a pseudo-ochazuke (see left), and sometimes as a soup (see figure 1 at the top). Regardless of which route you choose, you’re going to want to cut/shred up and season the chicken.
If you need ideas, I recommend a classic 白切鸡 with ginger scallion sauce, along with some stir-fried garlic yu choy. Other options include seasoning the chicken the way you might season 숙주나물무침 (which I call “bean sprouts and chicken but the chicken ate all the bean sprouts”), or mixing the meat with tomato paste, sambal, shoyu, sesame oil, rice vinegar, yuzu juice, and grated parmesan; spreading it out on a foil-lined broiler pan; topping with some fresh mozzarella or some other cheese (along with sliced scallions); and broiling it for a couple minutes to get a beautiful browning and gooey spicy cheesy chicken. The possibilities are limited only by your creative spirit, so get scheming and start steaming.
The stock itself can and should be used in the days following as a foundation for other dishes. Try cooking risotto with it (I made a killer five-spice pork and deglaze-mushroom brown rice risotto with it a few weeks ago) or using it as the base of a pilaf or something. Regardless of the meal you’re making, it’s always good on its own as an accompaniment as well.
Basic Chinese-Style Chicken Stock
Equipment
- 2 Large Pots
Materials
- 1 whole young chicken
- 1 head of fresh garlic cloves peeled and smashed
- 4 inch chunk of fresh ginger thinly sliced
- 7-10 scallions roughly chopped
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp Szechuan peppercorns
- 1 TBSP Kosher Salt plus more to taste
Instructions
- Set the chicken in a large pot and add cold water until just covered. Place on the stove over medium heat while prepping the other ingredients.
- Add all other ingredients to the pot and raise the heat to medium high.
- As soon as the water reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low, cover, and simmer for one hour.
- Carefully remove cooked chicken and cool down in the sink, either in an ice bath or with cold running water. Return stock to stove.
- Carefully (wear an apron) pour the stock into another pot through a strainer.
- Use the resultant chicken and stock how you see fit.
- Live your life.