Samsui Ginger Chicken
This is my rather simplified home attempt to recreate the famous Samsui ginger chicken (三水姜茸鸡) dish from The Soup Restaurant. This was supposedly a traditional dish made by the Samsui women in Singapore during the 1920s to 1940s. Back then, this was a luxury dish and only consumed once a year. Aren’t we lucky now to be able to enjoy it anytime we want? This recipe is really easier than the dish looks – involves basically steaming a whole chicken, serving it boneless, and making the samsui ginger dipping sauce to go with it.
See Also:
- Samsui Ginger Sauce Recipe (above)
- Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe
- Steamed Chicken with Salted Fish Recipe
The home-cooked version was satisfying and we had a lot more chicken since a whole kampong chicken was used. Although my knife skills have much room for improvement, that won’t deter me from cooking this dish again next time we have the craving for it.
You can wrap the chicken in lettuce and top with the signature samsui ginger sauce.
See all that chicken juices collected in the plate after steaming the whole chicken? This is very concentrated chicken stock and can be used to make the ginger sauce, or to cook chicken rice, or for flavouring other dishes. For this reason, I prefer to steam the chicken, rather than to poach it (method for cooking Hainanese chicken rice) which yields a much milder tasting broth.
Samsui Ginger Chicken Recipe
You can also replace a whole chicken with a few chicken thighs if you do not want to carve a whole chicken. To test if the chicken is cooked, insert a fork or chopstick in the thigh area: if clear liquid (no blood) runs out, the chicken is cooked.
Ingredients:
- 1 kampong chicken head and feet removed, cavity emptied and cleaned
- 4 cloves garlic slightly bruised
- 2 slices ginger
- 1 stalk of spring onion
- 2 tsp fine sea salt
Samsui Ginger Sauce
- 50 grams peeled ginger for best results, use young ginger
- 4 peeled shallots
- 3 peeled garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp good-quality sesame oil
- 1 tbsp peanut oil or chicken oil*
- 1 tbsp chicken stock from steaming the chicken
- 1 tsp chicken seasoning powder optional; to taste
- 2 tsp sugar to taste
- 1/4 tsp salt
* Add 50 grams of chicken skin and fats, patted dry with kitchen towel, to a dry wok. Slowly heat up the wok and cook until the chicken oil is rendered.
Serving Suggestion
- 1 cucumber cut to thin semicircle slices
- iceberg lettuce leaves
Directions:
Steamed Samsui Chicken
- Rub salt all over the chicken including the cavity. Loosely stuff chicken cavity with garlic cloves, ginger and spring onions.
- In a deep and wide steaming dish (chicken broth will be collected at the end of cooking), steam the chicken over high heat for about 30-40 minutes. Watch the water inside the steamer, and add more water if the water dries out. To test if the chicken is cooked, insert a fork or chopstick in the thigh area: if clear liquid (no blood) runs out, the chicken is cooked.
- Empty the cavity liquids and reserve the chicken stock collected in the steaming dish.
- When chicken has cooled, de-bone and carve the chicken.
Samsui Ginger Sauce
Cut the ingredients to uniform small chunks to ensure even blending. In a food processor, blend everything to a smooth paste, taking care not to over-blend the ginger. Add more sugar if the ginger sauce tastes sharp. Season to taste with salt or chicken powder if needed. Click here for more photos and tips.
Serving Suggestion
- Arrange the cucumber slices around the edge of a large round serving plate by slightly overlapping each slice.
- Arrange boneless chicken pieces around the plate and place a saucer of ginger sauce in the middle. Serve with a small plate of lettuce leaves for wrapping the chicken.