What’s remarkable about this dish is that instead of developing
flavor step-by-step, you stir together a bunch of ingredients—
chicken, ginger, soy sauce, preserved black beans heated with garlic
in olive oil—and pour them into a clay bowl that you place into a
steamer. Thirty to forty minutes after steaming, you have fall-
apart chicken that’s been infused with all of those other
components and, because it all happens in one vessel, it makes its
own sauce. Serve the steaming hot clay bowl at the table and
marvel at how the food stays hot as you devour it.
1 whole chicken, 3 to 4 pounds
Olive oil
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons rice wine or sherry
1½ tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon soy sauce
A pinch of white pepper
1-inch knob of ginger, peeled and grated
3 scallions, sliced, white and light green parts
½ teaspoon sugar
1 shallot, sliced
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
¼ cup preserved black beans, crushed slightly with the back
of a knife
Cilantro leaves, for garnish
Steamed rice, for serving