This is inspired by great dish made famous by Neighborbood restaurant in HK. It’s a great weekend dish where lots of people can participate in making, especially the salt crust.
Serves 6
Time: 🕰🕰🕰
Effort: 💪💪💪
Ingredients:
1 chicken
1 shallot
3 cloves garlic
1/2 lemon
300g risotto rice
1L homemade chicken stock
3 shallots
Parsley stalks
1 teaspoon turmeric
White wine
1/2 Chinese pork liver sausage (膶腸)
150g beech mushroom, or equivalent
50g butter
1 teaspoon mustard
2 tablespoon flour
1/2 mug milk
50ml whipping cream
Parsley
1.5kg coarse salt
2 egg whites
A few handfuls of water
Method:
For the rice base
1. Slice the shallots and add to a pan with around 3 tablespoons of olive oil
2. Add parsley stalks, turmeric, and cook on medium heat until shallots start to soften
3. Add rice and sautée further
4. Add a splash of white wine to deglaze bottom of pan
5. Add chicken stock, cover and cook on medium-low heat until rice absorbs liquid; around 30 minutes
6. Set aside and keep warm
7. Note: be sparing in your seasoning, because the chicken will be salty
For the salt crust
1. Beat two egg whites until foamy
2. Fold in the coarse salt
3. Add a handful of water at a time, until the mixture sticks together
For the chicken
1. Preheat oven to 200’c
2. Pat chicken dry
3. Lightly season inside of cavity
4. Stuff parsley, half a lemon, a shallot, and 2 cloves of garlic into cavity
5. On a baking tray, pat down a layer of salt mixture, around 2cm thick
6. Place chicken on top
7. Cover rest of chicken with the salt mixture until evenly covered
8. Bake for 80-90 minutes, depending on size of your chicken
For the sauce
1. Wash mushrooms and remove any dirt at the roots
2. Slice 1 clove of garlic
3. Poach mushrooms and garlic in butter for a few minutes
4. Remove mushrooms; set aside
5. Add flour, cream, and milk to the butter and cook while stirring, until a thick sauce is formed
6. Add dash of white pepper and nutmeg
Bringing it all together
1. Crack open salt crust on dinner table
2. Bring back into kitchen to carve chicken into pieces
3. Layer baking tray with the rice base
4. Arrange chicken pieces on top
5. Decorate with de-skinned and crumpled Chinese sausage (pre-soaked in hot water and drained) plus the poached mushrooms
6. Bake on top rack of oven at maximum heat for 3 minutes
7. Spoon over sauce onto each chicken piece
8. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve
Nat & E Homecooking 