Choosing the right chicken is essential
When buying chicken, it is preferable to choose local chicken. If you decide to buy live chicken, pay attention to selecting healthy chickens. Healthy chickens can be identified by their shiny feathers, bright and shiny skin, firm and close body, large tongue scales, and bright eyes. For pre-cooked chickens, look for ones with natural light yellow skin and evenly thin skin throughout the body.
For pre-cooked chicken, check the meat to see if it is firm or not, with small fat lines, and the fat is not concentrated in the neck and thighs area. Avoid selecting industrially cooked chicken as they are often soft, lacking crispiness, and delicious flavors. To ensure quality, prefer local chicken or free-range chicken.
Chicken pre-processing
Initially, when bringing the chicken home, wash the chicken thoroughly, rub salt, and rinse very well to ensure cleanliness. If you plan to use the chicken for a meal, look for a female chicken. Female chickens have small bones, white meat, vibrant yellow skin, sweet taste, and pleasant aroma…
Once the chicken is cleaned, remember to remove all the fat layers from the belly and the neck of the chicken to hash and collect chicken fat…
After removing all the fat, place the chicken in a pot of broth, make sure the chicken is fully submerged in water, then add dried onions, shallots, or whole onions to the pot while it’s boiling (if you intend to cook pho, also add a few slices of ginger).
For the broth used for soup, avoid adding ginger as it may affect the taste of other cooked vegetables.
Tasty boiled chicken method
Start by adding 2 large teaspoons of salt to the pot, ensuring the water is moderately salty, similar to when cooking soup. Next, place the pot on the stove and boil over medium heat. When the water boils, reduce the heat and let the pot simmer for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken. Then, turn off the heat.
Before continuing, soak the chicken in the pot for about 30 minutes. Then, take the chicken out and rinse it under cold filtered water to make the chicken meat more crispy. While rinsing, carefully remove any residue and dirt sticking to the chicken meat, then let the chicken meat drain.
While the chicken is boiling, you can also extract fat from the chicken’s belly and neck for use. To do this, place the chicken fat in a frying pan and heat it. Note that when initially placing the fat in the pan, keep the pan away to avoid splashing. Cook over medium heat and when the pan can be opened, reduce the heat so that the fat does not burn.
How to boil chicken for beautiful and shiny skin
Start by taking about 20 – 30ml of chicken fat after frying and mix it with turmeric. This is the secret to make the chicken skin bright and beautiful when boiled.
If you use fresh turmeric, after removing excess fat, finely chop the turmeric and add it to the frying pan along with the chicken fat. Cook for an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute, then turn off the heat and use the fat to glaze the chicken.
If you use turmeric powder, place the turmeric powder in a small bowl or plate, then pour hot fat from the frying pan into it and stir well. Allow the turmeric fat to settle and infuse, avoid overheating to prevent scorching.
After the fat has settled, use this layer of fat to glaze the chicken. This process will make the chicken skin beautifully yellow and the skin smooth, without making the turmeric smell too strong (compared to directly adding turmeric to the boiling pot).
To have beautifully cut chicken meat, let the chicken cool completely before proceeding. You can put the chicken in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes – 1 hour before cutting, which will make the chicken meat cut more beautifully. Excess chicken fat after boiling can also be used, such as stir-fried vegetables or cooking delicious chicken rice.
In order to have fresh, vibrant yellow skin and juicy chicken meat, after boiling, dip the chicken immediately into boiling water to cool it down, you can use cold water to cool it. Wait for the chicken to cool completely before taking it out and placing it on a plate. If you skip this step, the chicken skin may dry out and not look good.
After that, slightly drain the chicken meat, you can take 1 turmeric, peel and mash it, squeeze out the juice. Mix this turmeric juice with the pre-fried chicken fat, then glaze it on the chicken. The result will be a boiled chicken with shiny, yellow skin and tender meat.
Wish you success with delicious and beautiful boiled chicken!