Peking Chicken With Mandarin Pancake Recipes

CHINESE CHICKEN WITH PANCAKES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/ gas 6. Mix the hoisin, plum sauce, honey and rice vinegar, then season with a little salt. Arrange the chicken in a roasting tin and brush over half the sauce. Roast for 25 mins, then spread over the remaining sauce and roast for another 25 mins.
• Once the chicken is cooked, steam the pancakes following pack instructions. Shred the chicken, then drizzle over the pan juices and serve with the pancakes, cucumber, spring onions and extra hoisin sauce to spread over.

MANDARIN PANCAKES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt and create a well in the middle. Add the boiling water, mix it in with a spatula, and then incorporate with your hands until you have a mealy shaggy mixture. Mix in the cold water and bring everything together into a dough. Turn it out onto a work surface and knead, adding additional flour if it gets too sticky to work with, until you have a smooth and slightly sticky dough, 7 to 10 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let rest for 15 minutes.
• Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces. Form them into balls and keep them covered when you're not working with them. Use your palms to smash 2 balls of dough into equally sized discs about 2-to-3-inches-wide. Brush the top of one disc with a thin layer of oil and stack the other disc on top of it to create one thick disc. Using a rolling pin, roll the disc into a 7-to-8-inch-wide pancake, dusting your work surface and rolling pin with flour if needed to prevent sticking. Place it in the dry skillet and cook for about a minute on each side, until splotchy with brown marks. Transfer to a plate and cover with a towel. Repeat with the remaining dough, stacking the cooked pancakes on top of one another and keeping them covered so that they steam. When they're cool enough to handle, peel the two halves of each pancake apart so that you have two very thin pancakes (NIFTY, HUH?!) and enjoy immediately while they're still warm. Leftovers that have cooled completely can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator for a few days. Reheat in the microwave covered by a damp paper towel.

PEKING-STYLE CHICKEN

Steps:

• Pare the zest from the orange in thick strips then mix with the soy sauce, sherry and fivespice powder in a large food bag. Bash the garlic cloves and ginger with the back of a knife to bruise them, then add to the bag and give everything a good mix. Put the chicken in the bag, rub the marinade all over the flesh then leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 3 hrs, overnight ideally.
• Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Remove the chicken from the marinade (keep it for later). Halve the orange and put both halves inside the cavity along with the bashed ginger and garlic from the marinade. With the chicken sitting on a rack in the sink, pour a kettleful of boiling water over it. Pat completely dry with kitchen paper. Set the chicken on its wire rack over a roasting tray and roast for 50 mins per kg or until the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced with a skewer.
• Strain the marinade into a pan along with the honey. Bring up to the boil then simmer for a couple of mins. Just before serving, turn the oven up as high as it will go. Brush some of the marinade all over the chicken. Return to the oven and cook until the chicken is crisp and browned. This will only take a couple of mins. Leave to rest, uncovered, for 5 mins. Serve with the remaining warmed marinade, some plain rice and bok choi or spinach stirfried with a little garlic and oyster sauce.

MANDARIN PANCAKES

Steps:

• Place flour in a medium bowl. Add the boiling water in a thin stream while stirring with chopsticks or a wooden spoon. It helps to set the bowl in a heavy saucepan lined with a dish towel to keep it stable, or a friend stabilize the bowl as you do this. Add the cold water in a thin stream, continuing to mix the whole time. Stir the mixture until it turns into a shaggy ball, then dump the ball out onto a lightly floured work surface.
• Knead the dough with your hands until it forms a smooth ball, about 5 minutes. Cover the dough ball with a damp dish towel and let rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or up to a couple hours.
• Roll the dough into a log roughly 10 inches long, then cut it in half crosswise. Line up the two small logs, then section each one in 6ths to form 12 pieces (for approximate 8-inch pancakes); in 8ths for 16 pieces (for approximate 7-inch pancakes) or in 10ths for 20 pieces (for approximate 6-inch pancakes).
• Roll two pieces into smooth balls between your hands, working with one piece at a time. Then, using a rolling pin or wine bottle, gently roll each of the two pieces into circular disks about 1/4-inch thick. (You'll cook two pieces at a time and proceed through the end of Step 7 before rolling out the remaining balls.)
• Brush the top of one disk with a thin, even layer of oil, then stack the second disk on top. Using a rolling pin, roll the stacked disks into a 6- to 8-inch circle. The size will depend on the number of balls you made in Step 3.
• Heat a cast-iron, carbon steel, or nonstick skillet over medium until a drop of water flicked onto the surface immediately bubbles and evaporates (about 2 minutes), then add the rolled, stacked disk. Let cook on one side until blistered and browned in spots, about 1 minute. Flip and cook until second side is blistered and browned. Sometimes the pancakes will bubble up with steam as they cook, preventing the second side from making good contact with the pan. You can gently press down on them with a flat spatula if this happens.
• Remove the cooked disk, then carefully peel it apart into two thin pancakes while still hot. Transfer to a plate and cover with a clean dish towel.
• Repeat Steps 4 through 7 for the remaining dough balls, adjusting heat as necessary to make sure the pancakes brown in spots but don't blacken. Finished pancakes should be served while still warm. To store leftovers, place the pancakes on large squares of plastic wrap or aluminum foil, then roll them up like a jelly roll and refrigerate. Reheat covered in the microwave, or briefly heat one at a time in a hot, dry skillet.