In traditional cuisine, chicken fat is an essential ingredient whenever sticky rice is needed. Chicken fat makes the rice shiny. The golden and glistening chicken fat is completely different from pork fat. When frying rice or sticky rice, stir-frying vegetables, or adding a little chicken fat to the dish will make it more flavorful.
Between frying and not frying the chicken fat, you will get golden and glistening chicken fat, but the taste will be slightly different.
Prepare the ingredients:
1kg of chicken fat or any amount of chicken fat you have
A few slices of fresh ginger, dried shallots, scallions (optional), a pinch of salt
How to make chicken fat without frying
First, you need to prepare the chicken fat: Wash the chicken fat with saltwater. Remember to remove the slimy membrane around the fat. Squeeze the fat with saltwater or a little vinegar to remove any odor, then rinse with water.
Boil a pot of water with crushed ginger. Then add the chicken fat into the pot and a pinch of salt, simmering it. Then scoop out the fat.
Next, put the chicken fat into a pot of boiling water, add the root vegetables, roasted ginger, and put them into the pot. Boil the pot to make the fat float on the surface of the water. If you want a more fragrant aroma, you can add scallions and a few kaffir lime leaves to the pot. Boil until the fat melts and floats on the surface of the water, then use a ladle to scoop this layer of fat into a glass jar. The chicken fat boiled in boiling water like this will solidify slowly like fried fat, but the solidified fat won’t be as crispy as fried fat.
Chicken fat obtained by boiling and infused in water like this will have a light and refreshing aroma, without the strong odor of high temperatures like frying. However, the disadvantage is that they still have some moisture, so if you want to preserve them for a long time, it is safer to store them in the refrigerator.
You can try making chicken fat this way and compare it with fried chicken fat; you will notice the difference in taste.
Traditional fried chicken fat method
Chicken fat bought should also be cleaned as above:
First, you need to prepare the chicken fat: Wash the chicken fat with saltwater. Remember to remove the slimy membrane around the fat. Squeeze the fat with saltwater or a little vinegar to remove any odor, then rinse with water.
Boil a pot of water with crushed ginger. Then add the chicken fat into the pot and a pinch of salt, simmering it. Then scoop out the fat.
After the preparation, put the chicken fat into a pan and add a little water, stir evenly, and don’t use too high heat, so the fat won’t become too hot and have a burnt smell. When the piece of chicken fat is almost dry, add dried shallots to make it fragrant. Then scoop out the fat and shallots, and strain the fat.
You can strain the fat into a glass jar or porcelain bowl for later use.
Comparison between fried and boiled chicken fat:
Fried chicken fat and boiled chicken-fat-infused water are both golden in color and shiny. However, chicken fat infused in water has a fresher aroma because it is not in direct contact with the pan and high heat, resulting in a more refreshing taste. On the other hand, chicken fat made with the frying method has a rich and fatty taste but can feel greasy and hot. Especially if you fry at a high temperature, overtly, the fried fat will have a darker color and a hotter, burnt smell.
In the case of frying gone wrong, to deal with the burnt smell, you can pour the fried fat back into a pot of boiling water with ginger and fragrant shallots and scoop out the froth of the fat, just like how it was infused with water above, the burnt smell will be gone, and the fat will become fresher.
The finished chicken fat should be golden and transparent like honey.
Using chicken fat in cooking, especially in dishes like sticky rice, rice paper rolls, bamboo shoot soups, and fried rice, will enhance their taste. Fragrant chicken fat will create a distinctive flavor for the dishes. In particular, chicken fat has a fatty taste but is less oily than pork fat, making it smoother and more tender to eat.
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