Saturday, June 23, 2012

Thit Ga Luoc -- Vietnamese style boiled chicken

Many people think that boiling a chicken is as simple as throwing a chicken in some water and cooking till done. While this will yield something edible, rarely will it result in something worth savoring.

Often the simplest dishes are the most difficult.

Done right, boiled chicken, Vietnamese style, should result in perfectly cooked, moist chicken that has only an evanescent whisper of ginger. The muscle fibers should have a firm, toothsome texture; the skin should be pleasantly chewy but soft, and the only garnish needed are some green onions and and finely sliced ginger.

Done wrong, boiled chicken results in meat with a stringy texture, and flaccid, jiggly skin, and mushy dry meat. Most of the simmered/boiled/roasted/cooked chicken I eat have this characteristic, and I am usually unimpressed.

I will be experimenting with a few methods over the next few weeks.

06/22/12 Method 1
The first time I made it happened to be the best so far. I did not soak the chicken in a brine. I rinsed it off a bit, nestled it in a pot that was barely big enough and poured hot water from the kettle over it. This is a tip I got from some Vietnamese forums, which is to make the skin "tighten." I used my larger gas burner on high, covered the chicken with water (a bit of the breast was not submerged), and quickly brought it to a boil. I then dumped out the contents along with the scum. I then placed the chicken back in the pot, covered with hot water from the kettle again, and brought the chicken to a boil as quickly as possible along with a pinch of salt and a few fresh ginger coins that I smashed. Because the chicken was not completely submerged (about the top 1/2 inch of breast was sticking out), I turned the chicken around a couple times. I let the chicken actively be simmered for about 15 minutes, covered it, shut off the stove, and let ambient water temperature continue to cook the chicken for about 30 minutes. When 30 minutes was up, I promptly removed the chicken from the pot to let it cool. The broth I was left with was beautiful clear, flavorful, and had some nice body.

This chicken was, in a word, almost perfect. The texture and flavor were on par with what this dish quintessentially should be.

06/23/2012 Method 2
Today's chicken was made with a chicken that had sat in a salt brine overnight. I nestled this chicken in a larger pot than from Method 1 with hot water already in it so that the chicken could be completely submerged. I spent a considerable amount of time pulling the scum from the top, and I used the smaller gas burner. It took a while for the water to boil, and when it did, I let it boil quite vigorously for about 10 minutes, covered it, shut off the stove, and let the ambient water temperature continue to cook the chicken for about 30 minutes.

Method 2's version yielded a disappointing chicken. The first thing I noticed when I pulled the chicken out of the pot was that it was waterlogged, bloated, and while it sat and cooled, it lost a lot of juice. The texture of the chicken was unfortunate as well -- it had the stringy, mushy texture that most mediocre boiled chicken has. In addition, the meat was dry and the skin was a greasy, flaccid mess. The broth had little flavor and did not smell nice -- it smelled like a chicken had taken a dive into the pot, swam around and I was drinking its bath water.

NOTES: I think Method 2 was a failure for several reasons which I hope to have corrected for my 3rd go-around. One is that I think it was a mistake to use the smaller gas burner. The larger gas burner was needed to bring the water to boiling temperatures as quickly as possible. The second mistake is that while the chicken is "boiling," the water should not actually be at a rolling boil -- it should be a gentle simmer. The third mistake is that I should not have skipped the step of initially pouring boiling water over the chicken to "tighten" its skin.

For Method 3 I will do the following: brine the chicken overnight, use a large stock pot, pour boiling water over the chicken to tighten the skin, throw out the first boiled water, and use the larger burner to bring water to temperature as quickly as possible.



"Recipe"
1 chicken
salt
ginger
water

Because this dish is so simple and has so few ingredients, the quality of each respective ingredient is very important. 

Sauces to accompany:

Coconut aminos sauce
ginger, thinly sliced
cilantro, minced

Fish sauce
Red Boat fish sauce, or other high-quality virgin pressing
squeeze of lime juice
ginger, thinly sliced
cilantro, minced

Soy sauce, naturally brewed
ginger, thinly sliced

cilantro, minced