Brought to you by Slow Hills Chicken
Eight-treasure chicken
A modern, flavour-packed twist to the Chinese dish eight-treasure duck.
- 20 mins preparation
- 1 hr 50 mins cooking
- Serves 4 - 6
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Ingredients
- 200 g brown rice
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 30 g ginger, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 4 spring onions, thinly sliced
- 4 shiitake mushrooms, diced
- 8 water chestnuts, diced
- 1 1/2 tbsp goji berries
- 1 Slow Hills chicken (about 1.6kg)
- 2 tbsp light soy
- 80 ml Shaoxing wine
- 100 ml chicken stock
- Asian-style salad, such as smashed cucumber salad, or dressed tatsoi leaves and wombok, to serve
Method
- 1Cook rice in a saucepan of boiling water until tender (20-25 minutes). Drain well.
- 2Heat half the oil in a wide casserole over medium heat. Add onion and stir occasionally until tender and starting to caramelise at the edges (8-10 minutes). Add ginger and garlic and sauté until tender and fragrant (5 minutes). Stir in rice to combine, then spring onion, shiitake, water chestnut and goji berries. Season with ½ tsp white pepper.
- 3Open chicken cavity and spoon rice mixture inside, pressing to fill compactly. Secure opening with toothpicks.
- 4Clean casserole and heat remaining oil over high heat. Add chicken skin-side down and sear until golden brown (4-5 minutes). Turn, then add soy, Shaoxing and stock to casserole and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover with a lid and steam until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear when thigh is pierced with a skewer (1 hour).
- 5Remove rice from cavity and stir with pan juices to combine. Transfer rice to a serving platter, then carve chicken and arrange over rice, spooning over pan juices. Serve with an Asian-style cucumber salad.
Notes
This is a dish is inspired by the Chinese dish, eight treasure duck, where savoury rice is baked inside the duck cavity. We do the same here using chicken, and after it's cooked, the juices are stirred through the rice to flavour it even more – delicious!
