This tender bone-in chicken dish, stewed in a pungent mixture of wine and black sesame oil, pays homage to one of the dishes commonly prepared for new mothers in Taiwan. It was once the custom for mothers to eat stewed chicken with sesame oil everyday for the first month after giving birth to a child. These days, many families still follow the tradition and serve this dish to new mothers, although perhaps not every day.

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Ingredients

• One whole chicken
• 10 slices of ginger
• ¼ cup (4 Tbsp) black sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp black sesame oil
• 1 cup rice wine
• 2 cups water
• 1 Tbsp sugar

Instructions

1. Clean the chicken and cut into large pieces approximately two inches in size. (If you’re new to meat preparation, you can refer to this great video by Martin Yan for a demonstration on how to quickly slice up a chicken into pieces.)
2. Heat ¼ cup of black sesame oil under medium temperature in a pot or wok. Add ginger and sauté until the ginger turns dry and fragrant.
3. Add chicken pieces to the pot and cook until the meat turn pale, then add wine, water and sugar. Cook and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cook for 40 minutes.
4. Finally, add a single tablespoon of black sesame oil before serving.
5. You may serve this with thin noodles. Add more water and rice wine to increase the quantity of soup.

Tips

Salt is not needed for this recipe and is in fact not recommended, adding salt may result in a bitter taste. If you really must add salt, add it at the end of cooking. Some people may prefer to use wine only instead of a mixture of wine and water for cooking.  An all-wine approach yields a delicious, strong-flavored result, but the alcohol may render the dish unsuitable for children to consume.

Salted duck differs from roasted duck; it has a lighter taste and is less greasy. The slight flavor of salt brings out the flavor of the duck in this recipe, which will please duck meat lovers as well as fans of easy, healthy cuisine.

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Ingredients

• One whole duck (approximately 4 to 5 pounds)

Part A

• 1 tsp ground peppercorn
• 3 Tbsp salt

Part B

• 2 cans of chicken broth
• Water to cover the duck in the pot
• 2 tsp salt
• 5 slices ginger
• 2 green onions, cut in half
• 3 Tbsp wine

Instructions:

1. Clean the duck meat and wipe it dry.
2. Stir-fry the ingredients listed in Part A (ground pepper corn and salt) over low heat until the peppercorn and salt turn light brown.
3. Evenly spread the pepper-salt mixture outside of the duck as well as inside the duck. Place duck meat into a large freezer bag or in a pot and store in the refrigerator for at least one day. Rotate occasionally to ensure that the duck marinates evenly.
4. Place all the ingredients listed in Part B into a large pot. Then place the marinated duck meat into the pot and cook until the liquid comes to a boil. Turn the heat to low and then simmer covered for 40 minutes, rotating the duck after the first 20 minutes have passed.
5. After the duck meat has cooked, let it soak in marinade for another hour more or for longer.
6. Remove duck meat from marinade and store in the refrigerator. When the meat cools down, it is ready to slice and serve.

Tips

It is easier to slice duck meat when it is cold. When preparing salted duck, do not select a duck that is too large since the larger ducks yield fattier meat.  After preparing this recipe, you can strain the marinade and save it in freezer for the next time you make another batch of salted duck.