Drunken chicken is an excellent appetizer because it’s simple to make with everyday ingredients and have a very unique yet mild flavor. What I love about this dish is that you can make some in advance because the dish is served cold so just cut up a few pieces when you need it. You can marinate the chicken for up to one week in the refrigerator.
So the reason this dish is called drunken chicken is because the chicken is marinated in shaoxing wine. Now there are many types of shaoxing wine and I was fortunate to find an aged bottle of shaoxing wine at my Asian supermarket but you can use any types of yellow wine (黃酒). However if you can get your hands on a decent bottle of shaoxing wine, it’s definitely worth it. Since we aren’t using the wine in cooking but in marinating – it’s important to use a better quality wine so the flavor of the drunken chicken is intense yet mild.
In Chinese cooking, the most time consuming part is the prep work, but this recipe, the most time consuming part is waiting for the marinated chicken to be ready for consumption. It’s a long and arduous 12+ hours but worth the wait!
Ingredients
- 2 boneless chicken leg quarter with skin (about 2 lbs)
- ¼ cup dried goji berries
- ¼ cup fish sauce
- 1 cup shaoxing wine
- 2 cups chicken stock
- Chinese herbs (optional)
It is very important to have the skin on the chicken meat. In Asian supermarkets, they usually sell a boneless leg quarter with skin, that would be the ideal cut because it’s large enough to create a chicken roll. If not, then your chicken rolls are going to be very small. The chicken skin will help bind the roll and has a good texture when it’s cold and also help with flavor.
Traditionally we should add various Chinese herbs but since these are hard to come by in America, we will skip them. I was able to get some dried Goji berry so we can add that. It also helps to bring some color to an otherwise plain looking dish.
Directions
First, we need to soak the dried goji berries in water to soften. Usually takes about 15 minutes.
In the meantime, we will prepare the chicken. Cut up a piece of foil large enough to wrap 1 piece of the leg quarter. Place the chicken, skin side down, about 1/3rd from the bottom of the foil and then rub about 1 tsp of fish sauce on both sides of the chicken. Roll up the chicken into a roll lengthwise with the skin resulting on the outside. Use the foil and roll up the chicken to tighten. It’s like wrapping candy. Repeat with the other piece.
Boil a pot of water and add some ginger and green onion to flavor the chicken stock. Turn the heat down to a low simmer and insert the foil wrapped chicken rolls into the pot ensuring the entire roll is covered by the water. Put a lid on the pot and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes.
Remove the chicken and immediately put the wrapped rolls into an ice bath to stop the cooking process and keep the meat juicy yet firm. Let the chicken rest for at least 15 minutes until cooled.
As we wait for the chicken to cool down, let’s make the drunken marinade. Take 2 cups of chicken stock and add 1 cup of shoaxing wine along with the remaining fish sauce and mix well. Drain the goji berries and also put into the marinade. Give it a quick taste, if it’s not salty enough, you can either add about 1 tsp of salt or more fish sauce. Also, if you want more wine flavor, you can add up to another cup of wine. Keep in mind if there is too much wine, then the chicken might start to be a little bit bitter.
Time to take the chicken out from the ice bath and remove the foil. You will see a beautifully rolled up chicken – that’s exactly what we want but we can’t eat it yet! (sad sad sad). Put the chicken into a ziplock bag. I prefer bags than a container because it’s easier to just flip the bag instead of having to open the container and flip the chicken. Anyway, put the chicken in the bag and pour the marinade so it covers the chicken and stick it in the fridge. Now, we wait, and wait, and wait a little longer. Don’t sit there and wait, since it’s a minimum 12 hour endeavor, go do something productive first, like cleaning up the kitchen, feed the kids, and go meet some friends. But as you wait, occasionally flip the chicken.
Ok, 12 hours has finally past, it’s time to dig into the food. Remove the chicken from the marinade and cut into ½” slices. Notice how beautiful each piece looks? I usually eat the end pieces as I cut just to make sure it tastes good. Of course it does! Put the chicken on a plate and then spoon out a little bit of the marinade along with goji berries and pour on the chicken. Please serve this dish cold because it tastes a lot better.
Oh, one thing to note, if you have kids and minors and you don’t want them to get drunk, it’s important to actually cook the marinade to boil off the alcohol and then pour into the bag after it’s cooled. However, then this dish would not be called drunken chicken would it?
- 2 boneless chicken leg quarter with skin (about 2 lbs)
- ¼ cup dried goji berries
- ¼ cup fish sauce
- 1 cup shaoxing wine
- 2 cups chicken stock
- Chinese herbs (optional)
- Soak goji berry in water to soften
- Cut up a large sheet of aluminum foil
- Place chicken skin side down on the sheet
- Rub fish sauce on both side of the chicken
- Roll up the chicken tightly with skin on the outside using the foil (like wrapping candy) - this will help the chicken roll hold its shape as well as the moisture since it's wrapped.
- Boil a pot of water and put some sliced ginger and green onion to bring out flavor of the chicken
- Turn the heat down to a low simmer and insert the foil wrapped chicken roll ensuring the entire roll is covered by water
- Simmer for about 20-30 minutes and immediately insert the wrapped rolls into an ice bath to stop the cooking process
- While the chicken is bathing, time to make the marinade
- Take 2 cups of chicken stock, add the remaining fish sauce and shaoxing wine and mix well
- Drain the goji berry and add to the marinade
- Once chicken is cool to touch, remove chicken from foil and put into ziplock bag
- Pour the marinade into the bag and make sure it’s enough to cover the chicken
- Refrigerate for at least 12 hours before serving
- Remove chicken from marinade, and cut into ½” slices, pour some of the marinade with goji berry on top and serve chilled