Crispy fried chicken, the banquet bird

Ingredientsserves 6

Equipment

• A big wok that holds a litre or more of oil, and a long-handled ladle. The bird is not submerged: you ladle the oil over it.
• A hook, or a rack over a tray. The hanging space is the hard part: a Hong Kong flat has a window grille and a Sydney one does not.
• A thermometer

How the time splits

1. 20 minClean the bird and rub the marinade inhands on
2. 4 hrMarinating in the fridgehands off
3. 1 hrOut of the fridge, coming back to room temperaturehands off
4. 10 minScald the skin and brush the glaze onhands on
5. 4 hrHanging to dry until the skin feels like paperhands off
6. 40 minAt the wok, ladling oil over it — you cannot walk awayhands on

Method

1. Dry the bird thoroughly, rub the marinade over the skin and inside the cavity, and leave it in the fridge for four hours or overnight.
2. Bring it back to room temperature, about an hour. Boil a pot of water and lower the bird in for about a minute so the skin tightens and swells, then lift it out and pat it dry. This is what makes the glaze take evenly.
3. Bring the glaze to the boil and brush it hot over the whole skin. Hang the bird, or stand it on a rack, for two hours; brush again and give it three or four hours more — or leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge overnight. The skin should feel like paper.
4. Heat the oil to about 150°C. Hold the bird over the wok on a ladle and spoon the hot oil over the skin, neck to thigh, turning it so every part gets the heat.
5. When the skin is golden, take the oil to 180°C and ladle for another two or three minutes to crisp it. You cannot leave these thirty-odd minutes: let the oil drop and the skin drinks it and goes soft; take it too far and it burns.
6. Rest ten minutes before chopping. Prawn crackers round the plate, and a saucer of 淮鹽 — five-spice and salt toasted together in a dry pan.

Take care

• Poultry. Cut at the joint and check there is no pink at the bone; the thickest part should reach 75°C. A litre of hot oil: the wok must be stable and the bird bone dry before it goes near it, because water in oil erupts. Keep children and pets out of the kitchen for this part.

The story

A restaurant bird: brought out whole, chopped at the table, prawn crackers round the edge and a saucer of spiced salt. Hong Kong families rarely made it, not because it is hard but because a flat has nowhere to hang it — and those three to five hours of drying are the real work, with the half hour at the wok only the harvest. Whether the skin goes hard or crisp is settled at the moment you hang it up. It is one of the few dishes that got easier after leaving, for a plain reason: a Hong Kong flat had a fridge too, what it did not have was room inside it. Here the fridge is big enough to stand a whole bird on a rack, and the dry air in there was always going to suit the job better than a Hong Kong kitchen.

Same kind

Crackling roast pork bellyBraised shiitake in oyster sauceConpoy and whole garlic, steamed and turned out

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.