Chicken Congee

Ingredients

• 1 fat hen
• fine rice flour
• ham, minced
• pine nuts, kernels
• scallion and ginger
• chicken fat

Instructions

1. Take one fat hen. Using a knife, scrape away the skin from both breast muscles and scrape the meat finely — a scraper tool may also be used.
2. The meat must only be scraped, never chopped; chopped meat will lose its silken quality.
3. Use the remaining carcass and bones to make a rich stock.
4. Add the scraped chicken meat to the stock.
5. When serving, stir in fine rice flour, minced ham, and crushed pine nut kernels directly into the bowl.
6. Just before removing from heat, add scallion and ginger, then drizzle with chicken fat (鑊氣 / the essence of wok cookery is preserved through gentle heating).
7. The solids may be strained out or left in the congee according to preference — generally, if the chicken was chopped, strain; if scraped, the meat may remain suspended.
8. This dish is especially suited to the elderly.