Chicken & Egg

This looks like a pretty simple dish, but don’t let the looks fool you.  This is a David Chang recipe, so you know that some thought went into this one.  Set aside the better part of the day to make this.  The results are totally worth it!  The chicken especially is like no other chicken I’ve ever tasted and the whole combination with the egg rice and cucumbers is delish!  It’s like gourmet asian comfort food.

First, brine the chicken.  David Chang says from 1-6 hours.  So, I left mine in the brine for 3 hours.   It’s just water, salt and sugar.  Let it sit in the fridge.

Then, confit the chicken.  I’ve never confitted anything, so this part was quite exciting.  It’s chicken soaked in pork fat (or in my case, canola oil and bacon since I didn’t have pork fat on hand) in the oven at 180 degrees for an hour.  At the Momofuku Noodle Bar, they actually cold smoke the chicken, but since I don’t have the capabilities to cold smoke, adding bacon to the confit achieves a similar flavor.

While I was doing all this, the eggs were slow poaching.  You really have to keep an eye on the temperature because it will change within 5 minutes of not watching it.  If the temperature gets too high, then you’ve just got soft boiled eggs and they are ruined. 

Browning the chicken.  Chang actually recommends using boneless chicken legs for this recipe, but I used boneless skinless chicken thighs.  I buy them in mass quantities at Costco, so I always have them around.  Chang also recommends creating a char on the meat, but since I am a healthcare professional, I can’t really condone that since the char contains carcinogens.  If you do create a char and you’re using the chicken with the skin on, then I would just recommend not eating the skin.  So, I just browned the chicken in a cast iron skillet with another skillet to create a weight on the meat.

Slice the chicken.

Quick Pickled cucumbers.  This part is actually easy!  Sliced cucumbers with salt and sugar.

Assemble over steamed rice and ENJOY!!!

Mmmm….the slow poached egg is like a sauce over everything else.  It just melds everything together.  I love slopping all the ingredients together and chowing down!