Ingredients
| POACHED CHICKEN | |
| 1 whole Bostock Brothers’ chicken | |
| 50g ginger root, sliced | |
| 1 bulb garlic, crushed | |
| 1 carrot, halved | |
| ¼ cup soy sauce | |
| 1 teaspoon fish sauce | |
| 1 star anise, toasted | |
| 1 cinnamon stick, toasted | |
| 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted | |
| 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, toasted | |
| 2 bay leaves | |
| 1 cup white wine | |
| DRESSING | |
| 2 tablespoons fish sauce | |
| ¼ cup water | |
| 2 cloves garlic, crushed | |
| 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar | |
| zest and juice of 1 lime | |
| 2 tablespoons brown sugar | |
| 1 spring onion, chopped | |
| SALAD | |
| poached chicken (see recipe) | |
| 1 small handful coriander, roughly torn | |
| 1 small handful mint, roughly torn | |
| 1 small handful flat-leafed parsley, roughly torn | |
| 2 tablespoons chopped fresh French tarragon | |
| 2 tablespoons chopped chives | |
| dressing (see recipe) | |
| 2 baby cos lettuce, torn | |
| 4 spring onions, sliced | |
| 1 large cucumber, chopped | |
| 6 radishes, thinly sliced | |
| 1 chilli, thinly sliced | |
| 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds | |
| BROTH | |
| 1.5 litres chicken poaching liquid | |
| 2 tablespoons chopped chives | |
| 2 tablespoons chopped French tarragon | |
| 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leafed parsley | |
| 2 tablespoons chervil leaves | |
| 1 tablespoon lemon juice |
This is a meal (or two) that gets the best bang for the buck from a whole chook. Served with a crusty loaf of sourdough and butter it will feed six people heartily, or you could halve the salad recipe and have delicious chicken sandwiches the next day. You could serve the broth as an entrée to the salad, however my favourite is to have everything together; this way you get to experience the contrasts of tastes, textures and temperature in this bountiful feast of the humble chook while sipping on a bottle of local riesling or grüner veltliner. There is a fair amount of chopping things up for this meal, so feel free to do as much of this in advance as you can, although the herbs will benefit from being chopped up as close to serving time as possible. The poached chicken and dressing even benefit from being prepared the day prior.
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Instructions
| 1. | POACHED CHICKEN |
| 2. | To poach the chicken, place the whole chicken breast-down in a large pot and fill with enough cold water to cover. |
| 3. | Add all the poaching ingredients (if you are lucky enough to have the roots still attached to the coriander you will use for the salad, chop those off and add to the pot, too). |
| 4. | Place the pot on a high heat, bring to the boil then as soon as it boils turn to a low simmer for 30 minutes. |
| 5. | Turn the heat off, place a lid on the pot and leave for 1 hour. |
| 6. | At this stage, you could place everything in the fridge overnight to make handling the chicken easier the next day. |
| 7. | Once cool, remove the chicken from the liquid and pull all the meat from the bones, keeping it in hearty, bite-sized pieces. Set aside for the salad. |
| 8. | Put all the bones back into the poaching liquid and simmer on a medium heat for about 1 hour. |
| 9. | Season with salt and pepper to taste, then strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Set aside for the broth. |
| 10. | DRESSING |
| 11. | Throw everything in a blender or food processor and blitz until smooth. |
| 12. | SALAD |
| 13. | For the salad, toss the chicken with half of the chopped herbs and half of the dressing. |
| 14. | Put onto a large platter and top with the remaining ingredients, drizzling the rest of the dressing over the top. |
| 15. | BROTH |
| 16. | Bring the poaching liquid to the boil. |
| 17. | Add the chopped herbs and lemon juice just before eating. |
Photography Amber-Jayne Bain