Sesame Oil Chicken Soup

Ingredients

• 1.2kg bone-in chicken legs, chopped into 5cm pieces
• 4 tbsp toasted black sesame oil
• 80g old ginger, unpeeled, cut into thick slices
• 600ml Taiwanese rice wine
• 400ml water
• 15g rock sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp dried goji berries
• 2 spring onions, julienned

Before you cook

• Chop the chicken legs through the bone into 5cm pieces and pat them very dry.
• Scrub the ginger but do not peel it, then cut it into slices as thick as a coin.
• Rinse the goji berries.
• Julienne the spring onions and drop them into cold water to curl.

Steps

1. Heat a heavy pot over medium heat until it is hot but not smoking.
2. Pour in the black sesame oil and add the ginger slices straight away.
3. Fry the ginger for four minutes over medium-low heat, turning the slices, until they are dry, curled and browned at the edges.
4. Raise the heat to high and add the chicken pieces in a single layer.
5. Sear the chicken for six minutes, turning once, until the skin is golden on both sides.
6. Pour in half the rice wine and let it boil hard for two minutes to burn off the raw alcohol.
7. Add the remaining rice wine, the water and the rock sugar.
8. Bring the pot to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat until it barely bubbles.
9. Cover and simmer for thirty minutes.
10. Add the goji berries and simmer uncovered for five more minutes.
11. Season with salt and taste; the soup should be sweet, hot with ginger and faintly bitter from the sesame oil.
12. Ladle into bowls and top with the curled spring onion.