recipeviz

← All recipes

Wrapped Chicken and Napa Cabbage

Five-spice marinated chicken legs sealed in foil packets over napa cabbage, which steams in everything the chicken gives off.

1.4kg chicken, as 4legs11g fine salt0.5g white pepper1g five-spice powder2g sugar8g oyster sauce8g light soy sauce40g fresh ginger,thin slices20g garlic, 6 cloves,lightly smashedcombine,thenmarinate4-12hours800g napa cabbage2 sheets of foildividein two,cabbagedownand 2legs ontop,thensealtightlybake at200°Cfor45-50minutes,untilthechickenreaches75°Cchili oilserve
Read left to right: ingredients enter on the left, each block spans what it consumes. Open in the playground
Recipe source 
CHICKEN: 1.4kg chicken, as 4 legs
SALT: 11g fine salt
PEPPER: 0.5g white pepper
FIVESPICE: 1g five-spice powder
SUGAR: 2g sugar
OYSTER: 8g oyster sauce
SOY: 8g light soy sauce
GINGER: 40g fresh ginger, thin slices
GARLIC: 20g garlic, 6 cloves, lightly smashed
MARINATED: combine, then marinate 4-12 hours CHICKEN SALT PEPPER FIVESPICE SUGAR OYSTER SOY GINGER GARLIC

CABBAGE: 800g napa cabbage
FOIL: 2 sheets of foil
PACKETS: divide in two, cabbage down and 2 legs on top, then seal tightly MARINATED CABBAGE FOIL
BAKED: bake at 200°C for 45-50 minutes, until the chicken reaches 75°C PACKETS

CHILI: chili oil
serve BAKED CHILI

Serves 4, in 2 packets · 45-50 minutes, plus 4-12 hours marinating

Reverse-engineered from a wrapped chicken eaten in Shenzhen.

Ingredients

Meat

  • 1.4 kg chicken, as 4 legs (Sakura chicken in the original)

Marinade

  • 11 g fine salt
  • 0.5 g white pepper
  • 1 g five-spice powder
  • 2 g sugar
  • 8 g oyster sauce
  • 8 g light soy sauce
  • 40 g fresh ginger, thin slices
  • 20 g garlic, 6 cloves, lightly smashed

Vegetable

  • 800 g napa cabbage

Topping

  • Chili oil

Notes

The marinade is written by weight, and it is worth keeping it that way. 11 g of salt on 1.4 kg of chicken is a hair under 0.8% — a seasoning ratio, not a brine. Over 4-12 hours that is enough to season the meat through without curing it into something firm. Scale the salt with the chicken rather than the marinade's other numbers.

The packet is a steamer, not a roasting tray. Nothing in this recipe browns. The chicken renders, the cabbage collapses into the rendered fat and the marinade, and the foil keeps all of it in contact for the full 45 minutes. A packet that leaks turns into dry roast chicken on wilted cabbage.

Cabbage underneath, chicken on top. In a sealed packet this is the whole mechanism — everything the chicken gives off has one place to go. It is the reason 800 g of a fairly plain vegetable ends up tasting like the best part of the dish.

75°C is above the safe point for chicken, and deliberately so. Legs are dark meat with plenty of connective tissue; they are better a few degrees past done than pulled early, and there is no crisp skin here to protect by rushing.

The marinating window is the only thing to plan around. Everything after it is assembly and an oven timer.