A pot of celebratory angzao chicken
What I ate on my birthday!
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It’s mind-boggling how the end of every year feels the same. Beginning in late October, the days start getting frantic. On top of work and preparations for our trip home, there is a slew of celebrations - Wex’s birthday, our wedding anniversary, my birthday, Wex’s mom’s birthday, and then Christmas. It is only when Boxing Day arrives that we can start to relax. I am half-ashamed to say that I spent my birthday this year working on the cookbook, but at least I found some time to make a celebratory pot of ang zao chicken!
If you’ve been following my angzao journey on Instagram or read the newsletter on it, you’ll know that it’s been a long time coming. I had meant to harvest it on the 28th day, but this spring has been particularly cold (we’re still in our sweaters!) and the rice was taking a long time to ferment. By the 60th day, it was still not as alcoholic as I liked and was getting tangier by the day so I pulled the plug.
The rice grains have broken down into mush and a good amount of wine had formed. It wasn’t perfect, but was good enough to be used. What I like about this is that nothing goes to waste - the lees (the thick paste that remains after the wine has been drained off) can be used to marinate meat, while the wine can be enjoyed neat as a tonic or used as a great alternative to your usual Chinese cooking wine. It is especially delicious in steamed dishes and soups in my opinion.
Perhaps the most common use for the lees and wine is angzao chicken 红糟鸡. This dish originates from the Foochow community in the Fujian province of China, and is traditionally served on birthdays, accompanied by meesua (thin flour vermicelli noodles) to symbolise longevity. Sometimes this dish is eaten on a couple’s wedding day - Wex and I had a bowl of this, made with my grandmother-in-law’s wine and lees, for breakfast the day we were married!
Traditional recipes call do not call for the chicken to be browned first, but I like how it renders the fat off the chicken and adds depth of flavour, so you could have a really flavourful broth in a short amount of time.
After the chicken is browned, I add the key ingredients - sesame oil, ginger, and wine & wine lees. All of these generate warmth and promote blood circulation, making it a great dish to have in cold weather and to warm a ‘yin’ body or uterus after childbirth.
I didn’t have any meesua on hand, so I prepared this dish with glass noodles, which are my favourite for their ease of preparation. You don’t need a separate pot to blanch these; it can go directly into the stew. I also added a good handful of dried shiitake mushrooms.
Because my angzao was on the sweet and tangy side, the dish actually tasted a lot like another traditional confinement dish - pig trotters stewed in sweet black rice vinegar and lots of ginger! It was a delicious variation from the boozy version that we normally have.
I’d love to try fermenting angzao again in summer when we are back from Singapore! If you have the patience to wait, you can ferment your own with the recipe and guide here. Otherwise, if you’re based in Singapore, you can support W Rice Wine, which does such a good job upholding traditions and their products are so good. (They have gift sets that make great Christmas gifts too.)
Ang zao chicken
Serves 4