Roast Duck - The Series (Roast Duck Hash)

I was scrolling through my photo stream and realized that I didn't do a post on the first meal I made the morning after my roast duck dinner.  The leftover bits of crispy duck skin, brussel sprouts and three types of roasted fingerling potatoes made a beautiful looking hash.

In case you missed Roast Duck - The Series (Crispy Skin Roast Duck with Brussel Sprouts and New Potatoes), I used a mix of fingerling potatoes  (baby yukon, red and purple peruvian).  I especially love the nutty flavor and vibrant color of the peruvian potatoes.

Roast Duck Hash
1/4 cup roast duck meat and skin, finely chopped
1/2 cup roasted potatoes, smashed and mashed
1/4 cup roasted brussel sprouts, chiffonade (finely cut into thin strips)
1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 tsp crispy fried shallots, crumbled
1/2 tbsp flour or cornstarch
1/2 tsp duck fat
salt and pepper, to taste

In a mixing bowl, combine duck, potatoes, brussel sprouts, onion and fried shallots.  Taste the mixture and add salt and pepper to taste.  Sprinkle in flour/cornstarch and mix.  Make sure the flour/cornstarch is fully incorporated into the mixture.  The flour/cornstarch gives the hash that crispy finish.
In a cast-iron pan or a heavy bottomed frying pan, heat up the duck fat for 15 seconds.  Add the hash mixture.  Cook and stir for about 15 seconds.  Spread and press the hash mixture evenly down on the pan.  Cook over low-med heat until the bottom is crispy, about 10-15 minutes.  With a spatula, divide the hash mixture into quarters and flip each piece over, trying not to break it any further.   Press down and cook for another 10-15 minutes, or until the other side is brown and crispy.
Serve with eggs cooked however which way you like.  I personally prefer poached or over easy.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

The difference between Kwai Fei Gai (Empress Chicken) and Hainanese Chicken Rice is the rice.  Empress Chicken is served with plain steamed rice.  Hainanese Chicken Rice is served with steamed rice that is cooked with the chicken poaching liquid and fragrant garlic.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

2 cups Kwai Fei Gai poaching liquid

1 tsp chicken fat

1 clove garlic, finely minced

1 cup jasmine or brown rice

Kwai Fei Gai

Ginger scallion sauce

In a medium pot, sautee the garlic in chicken fat for about 30 seconds.  Add rice.  Sautee for about 2 minutes, stirring.  Add poaching liquid from Kwai Fei Gai recipe.  Bring to a boil.  Lower to a simmer.  Simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes or until liquid is down to the level of the rice.  Do not stir.  Turn heat to low and cover for 10 minutes or until liquid is completely absorbed.  Turn off heat.  Fluff rice.  Serve with Kwai Fei Gai and Ginger scallion sauce.

Empress Chicken (Kwai Fei Gai)

My favorite chicken is Kwai Fei Gai.  Fried chicken is a close (very close) second.  

Kwai Fei was a royal concubine who became Empress and one of the most powerful rulers of China.  This was supposedly a favorite dish of hers conjured up by one of the royal chefs.  Imagine making that decision to serve cold chicken to a lady who had the power and authority to have you beheaded on a whim.  Good thing she liked it, huh?

I love this chicken because it is not just simply cold boiled chicken.  The skin is firm and "bouncy" when you bite into it.  The chicken is rubbed with shaoxing wine before cooking.  The meat is tender and succulent.  The ginger scallion sauce is so good that I save half of my rice so that I can mix it the pesto-like sauce into it at the end of the meal.

I know of 2 methods to make the chicken.  Steaming and poaching.  

Steaming is great because it is faster and less work.  

I love poaching because I can use the poaching liquid as broth afterwards.  Cook up some rice noodles and save some chicken.  You got chicken pho for your next meal.  Or use the broth to make steamed rice and you can turn this into Hainanese Chicken Rice.

This simple dish highlights the freshness and quality of the main ingredient.  Which is why the best kwai fei gai is made with whole, freshly slaughtered, free-range, "chinese yellow chicken".  I put that in quotation marks because I really don't know if there is actually a special breed or if that's just how chinese chefs refer to the free-range chickens that they prefer.  The skin on those chickens have a better (firmer) texture.

I do not have immediate access to such a chicken.  Although, my boss did recently tell me about a vendor at one of the farmers' market in San Diego who sells organic, free-range, never been frozen chickens that he raises on his chicken farm.  One day...

Since I wanted to make this on a non-farmers' market day, I had to settle for never frozen chicken leg quarters from Fresh & Easy.

Kwai Fei Gai (Steamed)
2 chicken leg quarters
2 tbsp  shaoxing wine
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
Ice
Ginger-scallion sauce

Rub the chicken all over with shaoxing wine.  Rub the chicken all over with vegetable oil.  Ok, that's enough rubbing.  Sprinkle chicken with salt.
Fill a large pot with 3 inches of water.  Set a steaming rack in the pot.  Bring water to a boil and then lower to a simmer.  Place chicken on a plate with raised edges or a Pyrex dish that fits inside the large pot.  Place the plate/Pyrex dish on top of the steaming rack inside the pot.  Cover the pot.  Keep at a simmer for 15-20 minutes.
While the chicken is steaming, fill a mixing bowl halfway with ice.  Add 2 cups of water to the bowl of ice.  Once the chicken is cooked, immediately dunk the chicken into the bowl of ice water.  This makes the chicken skin seize up, giving it that firm and "bouncy" texture.
Serve with ginger-scallion sauce and steamed rice.  Either pour the ginger-scallion sauce all over the chicken or use it as a dipping sauce.

Kwai Fei Gai (Poached)
2 chicken leg quarters
2 tbsp shaoxing wine
3 tbsp shaoxing wine
2 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp salt
1 stalk green onion
1 knob ginger
Ice
Ginger-scallion sauce

Fill a stock pot a little more than halfway with water.  Add green onion, ginger, salt, vegetable oil and 3 tbsp shaoxing wine.  Bring poaching liquid to a boil.  Lower to a simmer.
While poaching liquid is boiling, rub chicken leg quarters with 2 tbsp shaoxing wine.
Fill 2 mixing bowls halfway with ice.  Add 2 cups of water to each bowl of ice.  Set aside the second bowl of ice water.
Add chicken to poaching liquid.  Poach chicken for 3 minutes.  Lift chicken out of poaching liquid with a pair of tongs and dunk chicken into the first bowl of ice water.  Return chicken to poaching liquid for 3 minutes.  Keep repeating this cycle of poaching and ice water dunking about 20 more times or until chicken is cooked through.  On the final icy water dunk, use the second bowl of ice water to avoid salmonella.
The ice water dunking makes the chicken skin seize up, giving it that firm and "bouncy" texture.

Rub chicken, once again, with 2 tbsp shaoxing wine and then with 1 tbsp vegetable oil.

Serve with ginger-scallion sauce and steamed rice.  Either pour the ginger-scallion sauce all over the chicken or use it as a dipping sauce.