Ipoh Beansprout Chicken 芽菜鸡

"Where's the ginger sauce?" exclaimed my the other half. *Ahem* "This is 芽菜鸡 Ipoh style, not Hainanese style lah!" I answered. ^0^" Everyone enjoyed this light and hearty meal I've prepared. My girl even commented the chicken tasted just the like restaurant one...I'm flattered! hahaha...To be truth , the chicken is indeed tender and smooth. Give the recipe a try, I'm sure your family would love this dish as much as we do!

Use kampong chicken instead of the normal farmed chicken. The meat texture is more firm and sweeter. After poaching and cold-water shocking the chicken, I carefully deboned the meat and plate it. The carcass?....not wasted. I've returned it to the pot of broth, together with some dried anchovies, spring onion and parsley roots, and boiled for another 1 hour for a light and tasty soup base for the rice noodles.

Ingredient

• 1 kampong chicken
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 6 slices ginger
• 6 stalks spring onion
• 1 chicken carcass
• 1/4 cup dried anchovies, rinsed
• 300gm thick rice noodle
• 320gm beansprouts, trimmed

Gravy

• 6 tsp oyster sauce
• 5 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp fine sugar
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• dash of pepper

Garnishing : spring onion, chinese parsley, red chilli, cucumber

Method

1. Trim away excess fats from the chicken. Rinse and pat dry. Rub salt all over chicken and let it sit for 30 mins. Stuff ginger and spring onion into the chicken cavity. Bring a pot of water about 2.5L, enough to submerge the whole chicken, to boil. Slowly add in chicken, cover pot, let it cook over medium high heat for 10 mins. Turn off heat and let the chicken steep in the pot for 30mins. Do not open the cover!
2. Prepare a pot of icy cold water. Transfer the chicken from the hot pot and place it into the cold water, for 30 mins. 
3. Bring the chicken stock to boil. Add in chicken carcass and dried anchovies and simmer for one hour. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Blanch the beansprouts in the chicken stock. I prefer to blanch the thick rice noodle separately in another saucepan.
4. Meanwhile prepare the gravy. Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. 
5. Remove the chicken from the cold water and drain well. Cut it up and place it on a serving plate. Drizzle the prepared gravy over the chicken and beansprouts. Divide the blanched rice noodle into individual serving bowl. Ladle in prepared chicken broth. Serve immediately.