Chicken with Kumquats
Serves 6.
Ingredients
1 x 1.5 kg/3 lb roasting chicken
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
4 tablespoons peanut oil
5 spring onions (scallions),
cut into bite-sized lengths
3 tablespoons Chinese rose wine
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons ginger juice
(squeezed from finely grated fresh ginger)
12 kumquats in syrup
2 teaspoons cornflour (cornstarch)
Directions
Cut chicken into joints, then chop through the bones to halve the joints, Chinese style. Wipe with damp paper towel to remove any splinters of bone. Sprinkle chicken with salt, five-spice powder and pepper mixed together. Leave for 20 minutes.
Heat oil in a wok and fry chicken in batches until pale golden, removing each batch to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Pour off all but a tablespoon of the oil and fry the spring onions for a few seconds. Return chicken to the wok, pour over the combined liquid ingredients and the kumquats. Cover and simmer until chicken is tender, adding a little stock or water if necessary. Thicken sauce with the cornflour mixed smoothly with a tablespoon of cold water and stirred into the simmering liquid until it boils and becomes clear. Spoon over chicken and serve with rice.
Recipe excerpted from Encyclopedia of Asian Food by Charmaine Solomon (Periplus Editions, 1998)