OMG!!! Silkie Chicken...

..so named for its black feathers that look more like slikie fluff, rather than actual feathers...is an experience to cook! We got one at the Asian grocery, H Mart, in Atlanta on a whim. Had no recipe in any of my Asian cook books. Nothing to be found on the web except that it was usually braised. So....Rosie was ready for the adventure with me. We took the dramatically black rather small bird (a bit smaller than a fryer chicken, though larger than a Cornish hen) from the plastic shrink wrap bag to find that the head, attached to an extremely long neck, was still intact. On even closer inspection...so were the feet! Which had been tucked up into the body cavity and were attached to unusually long legs. Rosie exclaimed, while holding up the rather unfortunate looking creature, "Mommy! This is what you would look like if you were a chicken!". We managed to remove the unnessesary parts and turned him into a little half chick. So here's my best Black Silkie Chicken recipe: While cleaning and chopping your bird, soak some dried shitake mushrooms in hot water. Peel about an inch of fresh Ginger, cut into about four slices. Peel and bash two garlic cloves. Clean and slice about four leeks and two carrots. Add those veggies, along with the now rehydrated shrooms, cut only in half with the woody stems removed, in a heavy pot with a lid. Place your half chicks on top of the veggies. Add two tablespoons of soy sauce and the water the mushrooms soaked in to the pot. Be careful not to pour in the last bit of your shroom water cause it can be gritty. Then, add chicken broth to just barely cover all. Bring to a low boil and then turn down to a simmer four a couple of hours or until the chicken is really tender. That done...let cool a little. Remove the chicken, debone and tear into bite size pieces. Take your shrooms and carrots out of the mixture. Strain the broth, discarding the leeks, garlic, and ginger pieces. Use part of the broth to make rice...about 3 cups broth to 2 cups rice. Use the rest of the broth to cover chicken pieces in a small pot. Place enough mushroom pieces in the chicken pot so that each person will get two per serving when you bowl up your chicken soup. Once your rice is done...stir in your reserved carrots and remaining shrooms. Bring your soup to a boil. Serve very hot with some thinly sliced green onions and a drop or two of hot chili oil on top. It was really good if l say so myself. Not sure I'll use a Silkie Chicken again....l think plain ol regular chicken will do
just fine! Happy cooking! C