Chicken a la kin hwa

6 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
Stephen Ceideburg
2½ pounds Young chicken
½ pounds Cooked ham
4 cups Green cabbage or broccoli
½ tablespoon Salt
1 teaspoon Sugar
½ teaspoon Monosodium glutamate
1 tablespoon Cornstarch (corn flour)
1 teaspoon Sesame seed oil

Directions

This colorful dish is also very simple to make. Kin Hwa refers to the delicious ham from Jinhua. Chicken, a la Kin Hwa, is traditionally served with the head as a center piece.

Clean the chicken, plunge it into a pot of boiling water, immediately turn off the heat and put on a tight lid. Leave the chicken in the hot water for an hour, then take it out and leave it to cool.

Carefully remove the meat from the bone but keep the skin on; cut the chicken into 24 pieces. Cut the ham into 24 thin slices.

Arrange the chicken and ham slices in alternating overlapping layers on a plate, and steam for 10 minutes. Meanwhile parboil the greens in chicken stock until soft, then arrange them around the chicken and ham.

In a little saucepan, warm about half a cup of chicken stock with salt, sugar, monosodium glutamate and cornstarch (corn flour); stir to make it smooth; add sesame seed oil and pour it over the chicken and ham. Serve either as a starter for a banquet or as a main course for an informal meal.

From "Chinese Regional Cooking" by Deh-Ta Hsiung, Chartwell Books Inc, 1979. ISBN 0-89009-598-1

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