Slow-Cooked Chicken with Chestnut and Potatoes (栗子薯仔炆雞)

This is one of my sister's staples, with the addition of chestnuts to give a little sweetness and texture.

Ordinarily this takes 20-30 minutes to cook, but I thought I would give it a try in the slow cooker. I must admit, it was my first attempt ever at jointing a chicken... it took me longer than I thought it would, and was a bit of a hatchet job! Maybe next time I'll just get a box of thighs and drumsticks, as I thought these worked better than the breast meat in this dish. However, one chicken has lasted us for what seems like days - we might finish it tomorrow!

 

Ingredients

• 1 chicken, jointed, or 1kg of thighs and drumsticks
• 100ml light soy sauce
• 200ml Shaoxing rice wine, or use dry sherry as an alternative
• 3 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp five-spice powder
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
• 2 slices of ginger, peeled and bashed with the flat of a cleaver
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and bashed with the flat of a cleaver
• 1/2 onion, sliced finely
• 200g peeled chestnuts (I used these from Merchant Gourmet)
• 400g waxy potatoes, scrubbed or peeled and cut into 3cm chunks
• Approx. 200-300ml water
• 3 heaped tsp cornflour, mixed with a little water (if needed)
• 2-3 tbsp sunflower oil for frying
• A few shakes of sesame oil
• 3 spring onions, sliced

Serves 6-8

 

Instructions

• Combine the light soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine (or sherry), sugar, five-spice poweder and white pepper in a jug
• Heat the sunflower oil in a wok or heavy frying pan until very hot. Add the ginger and stir-fry rapidly for 10 seconds to flavour the oil. Add the garlic cloves and the chicken - brown the chicken in batches, turning to get a good golden colour on the skin and meat. Don't move it around the wok too much, and make sure the garlic doesn't burn. Discard the garlic.
• Add the chicken and the ginger slices to the slow cooker, with the onion, potatoes and chestnuts. Stir to mix well, then pour over the soy sauce/rice wine mixture
• Add approx. 200-300ml water to the mixture - the liquid should come to about 2/3 of the way up

Ingredients in the slow cooker

• Put the slow cooker on high, and cook for 6 hours, turning occasionally
• After 4 hours, check the sauce. If you prefer the sauce to be thicker, mix 3 heaped tsp of cornflour with a little water, add to the pot and mix well
• Just before the end of cooking, add the sliced spring onions to the pot, and a few shakes of sesame oil, and mix well
• Serve with rice

Slow-Cooked Chicken with Chestnut and Potatoes (栗子薯仔炆雞)