I'm the Culinary God-Chapter 855 - 368: The Two Best Dishes for Cold Weather—Stir-Fried Chicken Offal and Spicy Chicken Liver!
Moreover, if your hand slips while chopping, it’s easy to get injured.
In comparison, slicing horizontally is much safer.
The chicken is pressed down firmly, preventing any instability that might cause the knife to slip; the force of the blade won’t be so excessive as to pierce into the inner cavity.
Lin Xu placed a chicken sideways on the cutting board, and following his senior’s example, used a knife to cut along the backbone, slicing from the neck to the tail.
After making the cuts, he carefully removed the chicken’s innards.
The innards included the chicken liver, heart, kidney, gizzard, intestines, and more.
Carefully plucking the gallbladder attached to the liver, he set the liver aside in a separate spot, followed by the kidney, and finally grouped the intestines and gizzard together.
The young assistant noticed the innards and curiously asked:
"Boss, should I send the chicken liver downstairs?"
Though the downstairs deli section offered marinated chicken liver, Lin Xu thought these young roosters’ liver seemed quite tender, so he didn’t agree, instead stating:
"Let’s keep them; we’ll make something spicy for lunch."
With temperatures dropping daily, and the weather getting colder, Lin Xu planned to prepare Boiling Chicken Liver using the Boiling Fish technique.
Taste aside, the goal was to be spicy enough to sweat.
Upon hearing about a new dish for lunch, the assistant promptly shifted his tone:
"Will these livers be enough? Should I get more from downstairs?"
"Let me check first, we’ll see if we need more... Assistant, if you’re not busy, maybe clean up these intestines and gizzards. Open and wash the intestines; I’ll prep for a Fried Chicken Giblets dish for lunch."
Lin Xu had long wanted to make Fried Chicken Giblets, but since the restaurant only used clean, fresh-cut chilled chicken, he didn’t want to buy frozen giblets, thus this technique hadn’t been used much.
But today, with fresh giblets available, he certainly wanted to experiment a bit.
Fried Chicken Giblets require pickled beans and the essential chopped peppers of those from Hunan; that’s what brings flavor and makes it delicious.
Once all the chickens were cleaned and their innards dealt with, it was time for a secondary knife-work.
The chicken neck was removed from the base, followed by cutting off the tail, leaving the body fully spread open.
Spreading it with the cavity facing downward on the board, use a rolling pin to tap over the chicken’s body, allowing the Chicken Breast to loosen, relaxing the joints too.
When tapping, use the flat side of the rolling pin as much as possible, preventing the head of the pin from breaking the chicken’s skin.
After a few strikes, the chicken seemed boneless.
Lin Xu asked:
"Did you break all the joint membranes, is that why the chicken meat becomes like this?"
"Right, breaking the membranes not only makes marinating easier, but also during steaming, the heat won’t cause the membranes to contract."
Xie Baomin went through each chicken, tapping them all.
Then he picked up scissors to carefully remove the spine.
"There’s not much meat here, it won’t cook well when steamed, so it’s better to remove it now, also clean out the lungs on either side of the spine."
Almost every part of the chicken is edible, except the lungs which need to be removed.
That’s because they contain dirty residues from the chicken’s breathing, consuming them is unhealthy.
While working, Xie Baomin explained to Lin Xu:
"Restaurants generally don’t do this because retaining the spine makes it look meatier, but if keeping it, the sides of the spine need a few cuts, otherwise the chicken might cramp and distort."
"Senior, does the traditional method avoid bone removal?"
"No removal, didn’t I mention? They don’t even remove the spine, let alone the other bones. However, in restaurants catering to foreigners where they struggle with bones and find it unsophisticated, after steaming, there’s an additional bone removal process; this allows the finished chicken to be cut and plated in pieces, making it easier to eat."
The duo, with scissors in hand, snipped away the spine for each chicken, removed small bones from the cavity, then began cleaning.
From the tapping earlier, some thick areas already oozed blood, thus it required washing, also scrubbing the skin.
After cleaning, dry the surface with paper towels to prep for marination.
The marinade for chicken is quite simple. Xie Baomin took a small basin, scooping in the needed marinade with a soup spoon.
One spoon of Five-Spice Powder, one of dried ginger powder, half of white pepper powder, two of salt, half of sugar, half of Sichuan peppercorns, mix well, apply on the chicken, inside and out.
Once applied, place the marinated chicken in a deep bowl, inserting sliced ginger and scallion leaves between to permeate their fragrance into the chicken.
After placing everything, cover with plastic wrap, storing in the cold room to marinate.
"To really savor this chicken, marinate for three hours as a passing mark, five hours is good; only over six hours ensures a flavorful fried chicken."
Xie Baomin wiped his hands, looking at the specially set aside chicken liver in a bowl:
"Planning something momentous today?"
"I intend to try Boiling Chicken Liver using the Boiling Fish method. I’ll stir-fry the gizzard and intestines with pickled beans and Pickled Peppers for a Fried Chicken Gizzard dish."
"Sure, add more peppers, make it extra spicy."
More peppers?
"Is Chef Dai coming?"
"No, Guo Weidong is coming, he’s not great with spicy food."
Lin Xu: ?????
Senior, you can be really wicked.
You should be grateful the law and society prevented you from being beaten to death.
