Songhua Chicken Legs
Overview
Songhua Chicken Legs is a special cold dish in Northeast China, which often appears on the table during the New Year or gatherings of family and friends. It is also a popular snack in summer. There is a trick to making it look good, taste good, and not fall apart when cut into pieces.
Tags
Ingredients
Steps
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Soak the chicken legs in clean water for more than half an hour, soak out the blood in the chicken legs, and then wash them
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Use scissors to cut the chicken and skin from the bones by turning the scissors in a circular motion at the joints of the chicken legs. Then use a knife to cut the chicken leg lengthwise from the side with less skin coverage, and separate the chicken bones and chicken with your hands
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The chicken leg meat after removing the chicken bones is unevenly distributed and uneven. Use a knife to slice the thick part of the chicken flatly into large continuous pieces (do not cut off the chicken, but still connect it to the chicken skin underneath), and cover the parts with less chicken, so that the entire chicken skin will be evenly covered by the chicken.
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Use a knife to chop the chicken, first chop it vertically, then turn the chicken legs and chop them again. Be careful not to use too much force to chop the chicken thoroughly or break the chicken skin. After this treatment, it will be easy to taste and it will be easy to roll the Songhua eggs into rolls.
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Cut the green onions into shreds and the ginger into slices, then lightly smash them into fine pieces with the back of a knife. Put them all into a container, then add light soy sauce, cooking wine, five-spice powder, egg liquid, and salt (optional) and mix well. Put the prepared chicken legs into the sauce, cover both sides and marinate for an hour.
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Shake off the scallions and ginger from the marinated chicken legs, then cut each preserved egg vertically into 4-5 pieces and arrange them on one side of the chicken legs.
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After rolling it up, roll it up with gauze or plastic wrap
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Then use tinfoil to roll up the gauze-wrapped Songhua chicken legs, and tighten the chicken legs in opposite directions on both sides. If you don't have tinfoil, you can use a rope to wrap the gauze-rolled chicken legs, but this shape is not as good-looking as rolling it with tinfoil. You can also just use gauze to tighten it and leave the rest out, but it is best to roll the gauze into two layers and roll it tighter.
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Put the rolled Songhua chicken legs into the steamer, turn the pot on high heat, and steam over medium-low heat for 30 minutes; turn off the heat, take it out, let it cool, and then open the tin foil and gauze, so that it can be cut into beautiful round slices without falling apart.
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After slicing, you can put it on the plate directly, or you can add garlic sauce or spicy sauce for dipping.
