Destination Flavour China: Episode 10

Wenchang Chicken

Slightly similar to the Hainanese Chicken Rice, Wenchang Chicken's biggest disparity lies in its sauce - with Calamansi, Chili and Salt. Follow Adam Liaw as he shows how to recreate this delicious dish in your very own kitchen today.

This isn't Hainanese Chicken Rice. This is the original Hainan's Wenchang chicken. So much of the cooking process in Hainanese food is incredibly simple. To make these white cut Wenchang chickens all I need is some chickens and salt. Hainanese Chicken Rice has been my family dish forever and this is where it all began. Today I'm cooking a couple of capons, as it's a special family reunion celebration. I usually simmer my chickens for about 45 minutes, but these giant Wenchang chickens are going to take about an hour and a half.

In Malaysia Hainanese Chicken Rice is usually served with a chili ginger sauce, but here in Hainan, Wenchang chicken is a little different. I'm serving my chicken with three different sauces, and the first uses calamansi. All of these little calamansi or calamondin limes get stuffed with a bit of salt and packed into a preserving jar with all of these tiny little fiery hot chilies that I picked off the bush. The juice goes back in the jar with the calamansi, chili and salt. Now these needs to preserve for about four to six weeks. Now the next source is probably the most simple of all. Just garlic and ginger chopped up and then mixed with some of the fat and stock from our boiling Wenchang chickens.

Now the last sauce I want to serve, it's a fermented fish sauce, but the anchovies have been fermented with a gluttonous rice alcohol. It's pungent, savory, and absolutely delicious. All that's left to do now is to cut up the chicken. Serve it with my sauces. Hainan's world famous Wenchang chicken.