Chicken Stewed in Clam Juice

This is a recipe I adapted from the classic Portuguese dish "Pork and Clam Stew". It is relatively straightforward to make, albeit a bit labour-intensive.  When you taste the dish at the end, it would be worth all  the effort you have put in.

I like to leave the skin on the chicken as it will impart a gelatinous consistency to the sauce at the end of cooking.

You can also substitute an equivalent amount of pork for the chicken.  It is just as delicious.

Ingredients:
2 kg of clams
5 chicken thighs, cut into 3 pieces
5 chicken drumsticks, cut into 2 pieces
10 sprigs of spring onions, with the green part chopped finely and the stalk end cut into 5cm lengths
About a 3-finger-sized piece of ginger, finely julienned
5 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
5 tablespoons of coarse salt

Preparation:
Marinade the chicken in the soy sauce and sesame oil for at least 2 hours.

Wash the clams. Clean each one individually with coarse salt to remove any soil or mud on the shells. Wash them until the water runs clear then soak them in salty water.  The water should be as salty as the sea.  This would get the clams to clear their bowels.  After about 30 minutes remove the clams.  You will notice some sandy residue at the bottom of the bowl. Rinse the clams under running water.

Cooking:
Put the clams into a large pan and cook over a high heat with half of the julienned ginger and half of the garlic. Cover the pan to start with and only remove the cover when you see steam escaping.

 

Remove any clams as soon as they have opened and leave aside to cool. Discard any clam which have not opened after 5 minutes' cooking.  Save the "juice" left behind, filtering out any sandy residue.

When the clams have cooled enough to touch remove the meat from the shells and discard the shells.  You will get a small bowlful of clam meat.

Now we can get on with the chicken!

Fry the rest of ginger until it has almost withered then add the spring onion stalks and the rest of the garlic and fry until the garlic begins to brown.

Add the marinated chicken pieces and brown all sides of the pieces.

Add the clam juice and bring to the boil, scraping the pan to dissolve any stuck particles.  This is called deglazing and will add flavour to the dish.

Simmer for about 2 hours on a very low heat.

At the end of cooking skim off any fat that has floated to the top and add the chopped spring onions and the clam meat to the dish.

Serve with steamed rice or some dense bread, like baguette or ciabatta.

Bon appétit!!