Baiqie gai, white-cut chicken

As tradition built it

Serves 4. 30 minutes active, plus at least 15 minutes resting.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, about 1.4kg, free-range
• enough to submerge the bird plenty of water, unseasoned
• enough to fill a large bowl ice, for the shock

For the dip

• a small handful finely chopped spring onion
• a small handful finely chopped ginger
• 3 to 4 tbsp groundnut or vegetable oil, brought to smoking point
• a pinch salt

Method

1. Bring a large pot of water to a bare, gentle simmer, no rolling boil.
2. Holding the chicken by the neck or a skewer through the cavity, lower it in, lift it clear so the cavity drains, dip it again, lift, a third time, then submerge it fully.
3. Poach at the barest simmer for about 25 minutes for a 1.4kg bird, adjusting proportionately for size; the water should never return to a rolling boil.
4. Lift the chicken and plunge it immediately into a large bowl of iced water, submerging fully, and hold it there until completely cold, at least 15 minutes.
5. For the dip, pour smoking-hot oil over the chopped spring onion, ginger and salt, off the heat, so it sizzles and releases its aroma at once.
6. Drain, joint the cold chicken, and serve with the dip alongside.

What a modern chef changes

An exact temperature and a real thermal shock, engineered rather than judged by eye.

Rung 4

Method

1. Poach in a temperature-controlled water bath held at 74°C for around 3 hours for a whole bird, replacing the by-eye simmer with an exact, held temperature; the underlying method is unchanged, only the control is tighter.
2. Shock in an ice-and-water bath at close to 0°C, holding the bird fully submerged until the internal temperature drops well below room temperature, exactly as the traditional method demands; do not shorten this step for a water-bath-cooked bird, it is doing the same mechanical work regardless of how the chicken was cooked.
3. Add nothing to the poaching liquid, in keeping with Rung 4's own rule: the discipline is the seasoning.