I don’t know if it’s an age/nostalgia thing or what, but I recently started wanting to try making Chinese-style pressed duck. I have never had it, but I worked in a take-out Chinese place while I was in high school and it was a menu item (along with about 150 other items). I remember the owner preparing it a few times, but since I was principally engaged in prepping veg and washing dishes, I never saw the finished product, nor do I remember anybody actually ordering it. And yet I’ve been wanting to make it.
I found a few sources, and they pretty much called for the same method. Cook the duck in a master sauce, bone it, press it, fry it, eat it. But for my first attempt, I figured I’d use a chicken, for two reasons. Chicken is cheaper. Plus, I had a chicken.
While I was ruminating on the actual steps involved, I realized I could put my own twist on it. After pressing the chicken, I’d cut it into quarters and fry each quarter, then make sandwiches with them. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it. And this week turned out to be perfect, because Spawn2 and Son-in-Law were going to be home for one night.
Sunday I retrieved the chicken from the freezer to thaw. Monday, I made my master sauce and cooked the chicken as for see yu gai (soy sauce chicken). I managed to remove the bones from it nearly completely without tearing it up into ragged bits (although I forgot half of the wishbone), which proved to be pretty straightfoward, as long as you understand chicken anatomy. While I was removing the bones (I originally said “while I boned it”, but because of my juvenile sense of humor I decided to reword it), I simmered the master sauce to concentrate/thicken it. I coaxed the chicken into a rough rectangle, put it in a quarter sheet pan, put another quarter sheet pan on top of it, then bound them together with some hefty rubber bands to rest and form a sort of tasty roadkill. By the time I had the chicken in the makeshift press, the master sauce was reduced enough to add a little to some mayonnaise to make a spread for the sandwiches. Tuesday was the moment of truth. I quartered the roadkill and made a batter of flour, cornstarch, salt, and water and dipped each quarter in the batter, then into some panko. I let them rest in the fridge for about six hours. I realized during the dredging process that my batter was too thin, but I was committed and I could not turn back.
After the six hour rest, I heated up some oil in a dutch oven, and fried the quarters, two at a time. They cooked pretty quickly, since the chicken itself had already been cooked, so all I needed was for the panko coating to brown, which only took 2-3 minutes per side. I slathered my master sauce-doctored mayo onto some nice burger buns, and then made four sandwiches, topping each with a Romaine leaf.
The result was every bit as good as I had hoped. I made an Asian-style slaw to go with it, and I wish I had taken pix, but I’m pretty bad about remembering to document with photos in general. I may do it again, but if I do, I’ll probably drop the heat for the initial cook in the master sauce and increase the cooking time, essentially going lower and slower. I’ll also do a better job at pressing the breast halves after removing the bones, and either make a thicker batter or go with a three step process (flour, egg wash, panko). Mrs. ricepad asked if I thought it might be too much of a hassle, and while it’s not something I’ll do regularly, I can see repeating this perhaps 2-3x per year.
On occasion, there are things we’re allowed to remain juvenile about, and this one warranted it.
