Boneless Stuffed Chicken

Difficulty:

1/5

Serves 6

Preparation time 1 ½ hours, Resting time 5 hours total, Cooking time 3 hours

Ingredients

1 ½ cups of sticky rice – (375ml)
1 ½ cups of cold water – (375ml)
One 3 to 3 ½ pound chicken – (1600grams)
Salt

For Sauce

4 teaspoons of Gin – (20ml)
1 ½ teaspoons grated fresh ginger – (7.5ml)
¾ teaspoon salt – (3.75ml)
1 tablespoon sugar – (15ml)
4 teaspoons oyster sauce – (20ml)
2 teaspoons sesame oil – (10ml)
2 ½ teaspoons of soy sauce – (12.5ml)
2 tablespoons cornstarch – (10ml)
½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper – (2.5ml)

Stuffing

5 tablespoons peanut oil for stir frying – (75ml)
2 teaspoons minced garlic – (10ml)
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger – (10ml)
¼ pound boneless lean pork, cut into ¼ inch dice – (225grams)
1 ½ cups shrimp, shelled, deveined and diced – (375ml or 12 oz)
6 shitake mushrooms, diced (1/8 inch pieces)
4 fresh water chestnuts, peeled, diced (1/8 inch pieces)
4 scallions, trimmed and finely sliced
5 cups peanut oil, for deep frying – (1500ml)

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 F
Chicken: Remove the fat and membranes from your whole chicken. Wash and rinse it thoroughly under cold water. Sprinkle the outside with salt. Rinse & drain again and pat dry.
To bone a chicken, turn the chicken vertically on its trail and loosen the skin around the neck of the bird and make sure not to break the skin. Cut the wing joint on each side of the chicken and keep loosening the skin down the body of the bird. When the skin is halfway down the body of the chicken, cut along the backbone, but do not remove yet. Cut both breast bone joints and remove the entire breastbone with the meat on it. Cut the backbone and remove it, remove both thigh joints and the thighs with the meat on them.
Using kitchen shears to cut the last piece of the backbone off –make sure you leave the tailbone in tact. Cut the drumsticks in half crosswise and remove the larger end. Using nylon thread, sew up the neck cavity of the bird. If you have accidentally pierced the skin anywhere on the chicken you can we sew it up.
The chicken meat removed from the whole bird should be diced into ¼ inch.
Rice: Place rice in a bowl with water and cover, wash 3 times by rubbing between your palms, rinse and drain. Place the rice in a cake pan that will fit over your wok. Add 1 ½ cups of cold water to the rice. Place a large cake rack over boiling water in wok and set your rice pan on top. Be sure that your rice pan is not touching the water. Cover your steamer and steam for 30 to 45 minutes or until the rice is cooked through and sticky. Replenish steaming water as necessary.
Sauce: Mix all of the ingredients together – gin, freshly grated ginger, salt, sugar, oyster sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, cornstarch and white pepper.
Stuffing: Heat a Wok. Add peanut oil and coat the wok using a spatula. When your oil reaches a smoking point, add garlic and fresh ginger. Stir until light brown. Add chicken cubes and mix well. Cook for a few minutes. Add pork and mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes. The meat will be white. Add your shrimp and cook until they are pink.
Make a well in the centre of wok. Stir sauce and pour it into the well. Mix thoroughly until the sauce bubbles. Remove from heat and place it in a shallow dish to cool.
Add your cooled wok mix to large bowl of steamed sticky rice. Add chestnuts and scallions and mix well.
Stuff the chicken and the chicken skin with stuffing – careful not to rip the skin or over stuff. Sew the bird back up to look as it did before it was boned.
Place stuffed chicken into a roasting pan and bake for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes flip the chicken and cook for another 45 minutes or until the chicken is completely browned and let cool for at least 5 hours. This process is necessary if the skin is to be crispy when it’s fried.
Heat 5 cups of peanut oil to 375F. Place cooled chicken into a large strainer and lower your chicken in to the oil for 7 -10 minutes until it is golden and crisp. If you cannot submerge your chicken, ladel the hot oil over exposed areas until the skin crisps up.
Drain chicken for at least 7 minutes, place on a platter, slice it across and serve.