Place a whole chicken (skin on, about 4 lb) in a large Dutch oven, pour in enough water to just cover the chicken, and add a sliced onion, 8 whole garlic cloves, 2 large knobs ginger (bruised with skin on), 15 whole black peppercorns, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 2 Tbsp sesame oil, and 1 Tbsp Maggi seasoning. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Let cook uncovered for 40 minutes. Then turn off heat and let poach
on stovetop, covered, for another 15 minutes. Remove chicken from pot and set aside, keeping warm. Season poaching liquid to taste (I added a bit of salt, pepper, and another 1 Tbsp of Maggi seasoning). In a separate, smaller pot, add cleaned and rinsed long grain rice and poaching liquid; let cook for 15 minutes. Separately, make the dipping sauce by combining 8 chopped Thai chili peppers, 3 Tbsp rice vinegar, 1 Tbsp seasoning rice vinegar, 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce (which is thicker than standard soy sauce), 2 tsp chopped garlic, 2 tsp microplaned ginger, and a dash of sugar. Serve the poached chicken with the dipping sauce, a bowl of poaching broth, the chicken rice, and some cucumber and tomato slices. This is from The Food and Cooking of South China by Terry Tan, with modifications (doubled all aromatics in poaching liquid, added Maggi seasoning to poaching liquid, and added sugar to dipping
sauce). (June 2014)
Cooking Adventures 