Peking Duck Chicken

Last night's dinner was initially exciting, then briefly disappointing, and finally really delicious. And now puzzling. Details below.

1 whole chicken, rinsed and patted dry
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp seasoned rice vinegar
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp water
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 scallions, cut into thirds crosswise and then sliced lengthwise into thin strips
warm flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 450°.

Place chicken breast-side-up on rack in sink. Fold wings back and tie legs together. Pour one quart of boiling water over front of chicken. Turn chicken over; pour another quart of boiling water over back of chicken. [This was the exciting part; the recipe said that this technique would produce chicken with the "crispest skin imaginable." At least for Andy, there may not be any more thrilling prospect.]

Turn chicken over again, breast-side-up, and place on rack in 9x13 baking pan. Roast for 50 minutes. In small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, and cayenne. After chicken has roasted 50 minutes, brush with half of honey mixture and roast for 5 minutes. Then brush with remaining honey mixture and roast 5 minutes longer.

Transfer chicken to platter (I just put the whole rack on a cutting board.) and let stand for 10 minutes. [Here comes the disappointing part: The skin wasn't crisp at all, so we removed it all in dismay.]

Pour off fat from pan. Add broth and water to pan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to loosen brown bits. Stir in hoisin sauce.

Carve chicken and wrap it up in the tortillas with scallions and hoisin sauce mixture. Offer white rice and steamed broccoli alongside. [This is obviously the delicious part. I ate so much I thought I was going to throw up. How's that for an endorsement?!]

Now for the puzzling part: We can't help wondering whether we need to go through the whole recipe next time or whether we can just use any old roast chicken and then make the hoisin sauce mixture and serve it in tortillas with scallions. We didn't eat the skin, but I can't tell whether any of the honey glaze mixture permeated the meat.

Comments

[jo]

By any old roast chicken I am guessing that you mean, 'already prepared in a grocery store'. I say stick to doing it yourselves. If you had the poultry lecture I had in school, you would want to know that you had cleaned it and cooked it, AND you would make a much moister chicken than they. Second, the reason for the boiling water is to render fat our of duck skin, however this step may not work as well with a chicken skin. I bet if you skipped it you would achieve the crisper skin your husband loves. In fact, patting it dry before roasting would also help.
If he's like me, you can remove the chicken from the oven, skin it, put the skin back on a rack over the roasting pan and crisp it further as it sounds like the rest of you skip it anyway.
I'm with him on this one....

[Karen]

Oh no no no, I meant roasting it ourselves, but without any Asian seasonings, then using the pan drippings to make the hoisin sauce. We roast a whole chicken every week and get nice, crisp skin, so that's why this was such a disappointment. I like the idea of putting the skin back in for another blast, though! I like crisp skin as much as the next guy (namely, Andy).