And now for 厨皇’s signature bird, the concubine chicken. No, I’m not referring to a king’s kept woman in a disparaging way, I’m talking about this Hong Kong style poached poultry right here. The main difference between this concubine chicken (aka Gui Fei Chicken, christened after Yang Guifei who was one of the four beauties of ancient China) and Hainanese chicken is rather simple.⠀
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While Hainanese chicken is simmered in water with some herbs, concubine chicken is poached in an exotic elixir of rose wine and lots of herbs. Thus, you get a touch more flavour with every bite of bird, even though those additional flavours are pretty mild. In fact, a good deal of its satisfying umami-ness is derived from the herbal soy sauce sparingly poured over it, while the herbal notes are more than content to be wingmen to the whole event.⠀
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The flavours are delightfully nuanced, but the incredible textures of the chicken aren’t afraid to hog the limelight. The meat is stunningly supple & majestically moist thanks to the perfect cook on the chicken. Meanwhile, that porcelain & slightly yellowish skin is essentially deliciously fatty & felicitous jell-o. Ladies, eat that skin, because it’s full of collagen and other stuff that’ll keep your skin flawless.⠀
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Normally, spreading legs this amazing costs at least five hundred bucks, but at 厨皇, getting stuck into these legs only costs nine dollars (per leg). You’re god damn right I’ll be back to patronise these leggy beauties, and you best believe it.