Wok-baked salted chicken

Another home-cooked Hakka dish which I enjoyed very much as a young girl. Without fail, I would finished up my plate of rice when my mum cooked this salty dish. Its saltiness tastes great with white rice. The meat is tender and not dry at all.   

My mum would just cook this dish by cover the whole chicken in a heap of coarse salt in the wok. I seldom cook this way because it requires longer time (and more gas) and uses up a lot of coarse salt. After the cooking is done, you would not use the salt anymore and it will be thrown away. So I usually just brining and steaming this dish instead. It tastes as nice as the baked one.

My mum's version is very simple. Just throw the whole chicken into a heap of coarse salt in a deep wok and cover the wok.  Let it cook in low to medium heat and once a while turn the chicken upside down or scoop salt over the chicken, so that all the body will be proportionately covered with salt. Once cook, off the heat and it cool down before chopping the chicken into biteable pieces. 

Few days ago I cooked this chicken dish using this dry version.

I used chicken thigh.  I rubbed some shao xing wine all over the chicken before throw it into the salt. No oil needed.  Cook for about 20 minutes under low heat, turn every now and then. To check whether it is cook, just prick a chopstick into the thickest meat area and if clear juice comes out, the chicken is cooked.

Pardon my ugly chicken because I am not good at chopping meats.  But it still tasted great.  Everyone loves it! 

For a different variation of this dish, you may like this steamed salted chicken that is more moist and have gravy to go with your rice.