Hand Pulled Chicken

Hi everyone, my name is Ryan Lin.
I am a first-year social work intern studying at Hunter College. I decided to pursue my clinical social work path so I can give back to my community, especially the Chinese community that could benefit from my bilingual skills. I am dedicated to becoming a mental health counselor and promoting the importance of mental health in the Chinese community. I’m also interested in promoting cultural exchange which helps people to receive a better view on the beauty of Chinese culture. Try out this recipe if you are interested, I promise it will be good! (Hint included at the end)

A. Hand-Pulled Chicken

This Hand-Pulled Chicken is a common dish in Chinese home cooking. It’s delicious and easy to make. This dish usually serves as a cold dish with multiple layers of the flavor. There is the saltiness from the soy sauce and oyster sauce. The sweetness from the sugar and oyster sauce. The aroma from all the spice and vinegar.

Ingredients:

Chicken Legs, garlic, scallion, ginger, vegetable oil, soy sauce, vinegar, oyster sauce, sesame oil, Sichuan peppercorn, chili powder. 

Step 1:

Prepare a pot of cold water, put chicken into the cold water, with one whole scallion and two slices of ginger.  Cook the chicken for 20 to 25 minutes depending on the size of the chicken. I used 4 big chicken legs and I cooked for 25 minutes. 

Step 2: 

The sauce. This time I used 7 clove of garlic, 2 scallions for the sauce. Chop garlic into little mince. Separate scallion into green and white parts (chop from the middle). Chop the green part into little pieces or any size you like.  Shred the white parts of the scallions.

Step 3:

Put the white part of the scallion into a small bowl of cold water. Put the minced garlic, green parts of the scallion, and chili powder into another bowl. Heat up some oil in a pan. When the oil starts smoking, turn off the fire and pour the heated oil into the sauce bowl with garlic, green scallion and chili powder. 

Then put 2 -3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, half tablespoon of sesame oil, and a few Sichuan peppercorns into the sauce bowl.  Then mix quickly.

Step 4:

When the chicken is ready. Prepare some ice water and take out the chicken from the pot and put it in ice water to cold down the chicken. Let it cool for 3-5 minutes. Then prepare a new bowl, pull the chicken meat into shreds or any size you like (or you can chop the chicken but traditionally we pull by hand), put the shredded chicken in a new bowl. Then pour the sauce we prepared in step 3 on the chicken and mix them. 

Step 5:

Put the chicken in the middle of the plate with sauce, take out the white parts of the scallion and place on top of the chicken. The dish is now ready to serve! 4 chicken leg can serve up to about 5 people.

Hint:  

-The amount of all ingredients is adjustable. Modify your ingredients based on your preference. The goal of this receipt is to give you a concept of this dish.

-Boil meat with ginger and scallion can give the meat a fresher taste and tenderize the meat.

- put the cooked chicken into ice water to cool down the chicken so it won’t burn your hand, it also tightens the skin and meat, and gives the chicken a nice, chewy texture.

- Remember to wash your hands before you start cooking, before pulling the chicken, before you plate and once you are done :)