[Chinese Recipes] Bai Qie Ji - Cantonese Poached Chicken w/ Ginger Scallion Oil (2024)

Duh. It’s the latter. This is Cantonese Poached Chicken…Bai Qie Ji, or “White Cut Chicken,” which is usually served with a sauce of minced ginger, scallion, oil, and salt. And it is dern delicious.

So…I won’t sugarcoat things for you here, because I respect you as a reader, and as a respected reader, I know you’d probably want to know the truth about things. So here it is:

The chicken we poached here really was whole. As in…whole. Head, feet, and all. It’s a Chinese New Year tradition to serve an entire chicken. Keeping the head and the feet on represents prosperity, togetherness, and completeness. There were a few somewhat…indelicate photos that I debated posting here but didn’t make the cut, and a photo that IS here that’s very strategically cropped, so as to spare you any trauma and/or prevent animal activists from egging our house (then again, an animal activist’s protest-projectile-of-choice probably wouldn’t be an egg, would it? Eh…).

Anyway, if you’d like to go traditional, you can cook a whole chicken, as we’ve done here. Alternatively, you can also poach smaller pieces for a shorter amount of time. We made this yesterday for Chinese New Year dinner, but it’s awesome any time of year. At the behest of my parents, I’m also beholden to inform you all that you’re going to want to buy a fresh, relatively high quality, smaller, free-range chicken for this recipe. When poached, those ginormous everyday roasters don’t quite turn out as well as a smaller organic or free-range chicken. But again, you can also just poach a couple of chicken breasts or other smaller pieces.

Chinese definitely prefer chicken leg quarters and they are readily available and easy to cook. When cooked right, they are moist, tenders, and very delicious. Our Drool-Worthy Chicken and Drunken Chicken recipes both use chicken leg quarters for convenience and you can do the same for this dish!

This is one of the best and most-loved chicken dishes in the Chinese repertoire, as well as the healthiest. My parents have been making it for years, and I’ve been eating it since I was a kid. Here’s how they make it. You’ll need:
One 3-pound free-range chicken, at room temperature
2 whole scallions, cut into large pieces
5 slices ginger
3 tablespoons finely minced scallion (white and light green parts only)
2 tablespoons finely minced ginger
3 tablespoons oil
salt
soy sauce (optional)

Clean the chicken. Rinse it under cold water, paying special attention to the cavity.

Fill a large stock pot with water–just enough to submerge the chicken completely. Add the 2 scallions and the ginger slices. Bring it to a boil. Once boiling, slowly lower the chicken into the pot. Add a bit more water if needed, so that it’s completely submerged.

Once the chicken goes in, the water will cool down. Don’t walk away from the pot! Bring it up to a boil again. Once it’s just started to boil, use a large metal carving fork to lift the chicken out of the water very carefully. The goal is to empty it of any colder water that may be stuck inside the cavity.

Put the chicken back into the water, and bring it to a boil again. Again, when the water is JUST starting to boil, turn the heat down. You want it to stay at a simmer.

Cover the pot, and keep the heat on low, so that the liquid continues to simmer. Cook for about 45 minutes. Depending on the size of your chicken, it may take a little less or more time to cook it through.

Test if the chicken is done by taking a chopstick or a fork and poking it into the thigh. If the juices run clear, the chicken is done. Carefully take the chicken out of the pot and transfer it to a large bowl. Let cold water run over the chicken for a minute or so. Wait until it’s cooled completely.

While it’s cooling, make the sauce by combining the scallion, ginger, oil, and salt. Make sure that they’re really finely minced.

Slice up the chicken into pieces.

And serve with your sauce.

A little white rice wouldn’t hurt, either. You can also garnish with scallion and serve it with some soy sauce on the side, if you like!

CANTONESE POACHED CHICKEN w/ GINGER SCALLION OIL (Bai Qie Ji)
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes

Yield: Serves 6

Ingredients

3-pound kosher or all-natural chicken, at room temperature
2 whole scallions, cut into large pieces
5 slices ginger
3 tablespoons finely minced scallion (white and light green parts only)
2 tablespoons finely minced ginger
3 tablespoons oil
salt
soy sauce (optional)

Instruction

1. Clean the chicken. Rinse it under cold water, paying special attention to the cavity.

2. Fill a large stock pot with water--just enough to submerge the chicken completely.

3. Add the 2 scallions and the ginger slices. Bring it to a boil.

4. Once boiling, slowly lower the chicken into the pot. The water will cool down, so bring it up to a boil again. Don’t walk away!

5. Once it’s boiling, use a large metal carving fork to lift the chicken out of the water very carefully. The goal is to empty any colder water that may be stuck inside the cavity. Put the chicken back into the water, and bring it to a boil again. When the water is JUST starting to boil, turn the heat down. You want it to stay at a simmer.

6. Cover the pot, and keep the heat on low, so that the liquid continues to simmer. Cook for about 45 minutes. Depending on the size of your chicken, it may take a little less or more time to cook it through.

7. Test if the chicken is done by taking a chopstick or a fork and poking it into the thigh. If the juices run clear, the chicken is done. Carefully take the chicken out of the pot and transfer it to a large bowl. Let cold water run over the chicken for a minute or so. Wait until it’s cooled completely.

8. While it’s cooling, make the sauce by combining the scallion, ginger, oil, and salt.

9. Slice up the chicken into pieces, and serve with your sauce and some white rice. You can also serve it with some soy sauce, if you like.

This recipe and image sources are referred in website: Thewoksoflife.com. Thanks so much!