Eight Treasure Beggar Chicken 八宝乞丐鸡

Still remember the beggar chicken I prepared one month back ! And during the previous Chinese Dumpling Festival, I prepared another ultimate beggar chicken dish for my family to celebrate this special day. This special chicken dish is stuffed full with chestnuts, mushroom, dried shrimps & dried oysters, together with some tasty gravy. I'm lucky still stocking up some dried lotus leaves that I bought 2 years ago. Probably, need to start looking for more leaves later on. >o<   Please read on for more.

Ingredients for one chicken filling (about 1.5kg) :
4  shitake mushroom, soaked & quartered
120gm   chestnut (storebought ready to eat)
5  dried oyster, soaked
2  garlic cloves, chopped
1 shallot,  sliced
1 TB  chopped ginger
1 cup   water (mixed 1-1/2 tspn  cornflour)
2 TB  oyster sauce
1 TB  light soy sauce
1/2 tspn  granules
pepper to taste

Method :
(1)  preheat wok or frying pan with 1 TB cooking oil, stir in shallot, garlic & ginger till fragrant.
(2)  add in mushroom, chestnut & oyster and continue stir fry for 2-3 minutes.
(3)  now, add in seasoning to your taste and keep on stirring till well mixed.
(4)  add in water and bring it to boil till liquid almost thicken.
(5)  off the heat and transfer to a bowl, leave to cool.

Ingredients for marinade chicken :
1-1/2  tspn  five spice powder
1 tspn  ground sichuan pepper, toasted
1 TB  oyster sauce
2 TB  light soy sauce
pepper to taste

Method :
Mix all ingredients together then rub all over the chicken and keep chicken refrigerated overnight.

Items for wrapping beggar chicken :
2 large lotus leaves, soaked overnight
a string
2 pcs  large aluminium foil
600gm  all purpose flour
water for dough mixing

TO ASSEMBLE :
(1)  wash soaked lotus leaf and pad dry with towel then place it onto aluminium foil.
(2)  next, put chicken (from fridge) onto lotus leaf and stuffed in the filling including the thick gravy, then seal chicken with a toothpick.

(3)  fold in lotus leaf to wrap up the chicken then tight it with a string.
(4)  then to secure it, wrap it with another layer of aluminium foil, then set aside.
(5)  place flour into a big mixing bowl then slowly add in water till soft dough is formed. You need roughly  more or less 500ml water  Then knead dough till smooth.
(6)  now, flatten dough into thin sheet and place in the well wrapped chicken, push dough to stick to aluminium foil till everything is fully covered.
(7)  finally, bake at preheated oven 195'C for about 2 hours.

This round the crust turns out really thin & crispy and it cracked beautifully.as well.... Just the way I wanted !

The aroma busting out immediately once I unwrapped the aluminium foil. It smells truly amazing !

 

The meat is so juicy & tender. No wonder the Chinese Emperor is loving it so much.....

You can just skip the rice and wallop those juicy meat and the fillings. It such a blessing to have this on my dinning table. A very satisfying dish for the feast. Hope you guys will love it too !