A few years ago when I was first getting to know Mr NQN’s family, B.B. (Before Blog) I was always the cake maker for family birthdays. I still am at times, although because of the amount that I travel I can’t promise that I can make a cake. And one time I made a cake, it was an absolute disaster.
I was trying to make a good impression on the Elliotts. I wanted to show them that city folk weren’t all Type A personalities (but by trying to prove this I was actually being quite Type A). Mr NQN’s brother the Assman was having a birthday and I promised that I would bring a cake. For an indication of how new I was to the fold I decided to make a pavlova which meant that I had no idea about the no egg rule for his mother which I would later learn in resounding detail. I decided to make Nigella’s chocolate pavlova with raspberries because it was delicious and easy too.
That afternoon I diligently cleaned the beaters and bowl even running a cut lemon over them to ensure that there was no trace of fat on them )this was of course years ago and I now fly by the seat of my pants and just hope that there is no fat on the beaters!). I borrowed my mother’s Tupperware cake transporter and sat the pavlova inside it, added the cream onto it along with the raspberries and chocolate shavings. We took the cake box along with us in the car (and why are there so many speed bumps?). The birthday dinner was at an Indian restaurant and the staff placed it in the fridge until dessert time.
“Ummm Miss” the waiter said to me over my shoulder once the main dishes had been cleared. “The cake…it’s” and he trailed off giving a strange look as if something peculiar had wafted under his nose. I pushed back my chair suddenly and made my way towards the kitchen where they revealed my pavlova. What had been a pretty if amateurish specimen, in real estate terms, a “fixer upper”, now resembled a massacre scene. Dripping wet raspberries leaked onto flaccid cream pockets while the foundations were ragged edged, sticky, oozy chocolate bits. I almost wept. I had no tools to fix it with and neither did the restaurant so I had no choice to take it out. And so I served it up, looking like a vivisection gone terribly wrong.
So what does that have to do with this chicken? Well when I took this chicken out of the water I was at first dismayed by the fact that the skin had broken because I thought that it wouldn’t be photogenic enough. But then I thought about it and since the chicken has simmered for a good hour then of course the skin was delicate and when I turned it over to see if the other side had a tear I then proceeded to tear half the skin off the back of the chicken. But I realised that I needed to not just make pretty pictures but real pictures that show readers what their dishes will look like.
This chicken dish was out of the new cookbook by Masterchef Season 2 contestant Marion Grasby that I was sent to review. She is a lovely lass that I have met on a couple of occasions. This recipe is a family recipe and she told me “My Dad always used to tell me that my Mum’s Beggar’s Chicken was one of the dishes that made him fall in love with her. So weird to think of parents as ‘courting’ but Mum certainly got Dad’s attention with this recipe way back when. Maybe Mum should have called it her ‘Man Catcher Chicken’ :-p Jokes aside though, it’s one of those iconic childhood dishes for me and even the smell of that chicken simmering away in the deep, dark star anise broth gives me comfort and makes me smile.” Marion says in the book that the chicken needs no carving as it is so soft and you simply reach and tear off the piece of chicken that you want and I loved that idea of sharing things with family like that, extended or not.
So what did the Assman and the Elliotts think of the cake? Well clearly it didn’t end too badly as I became a member of the family. But I kind of knew I had chosen the right people (even if they do drive me a bit spare at times) because their reaction was to ask why I was looking so upset and that the cake looked beautiful (don’t you just love it when they lie?). Mr NQN’s uncle Seppo was utterly kind about it and said that it tasted wonderful and people asked for seconds.
And I’ll always remember it as the vivisection pavlova 
So tell me Dear Reader, do you get upset when something doesn’t turn out as it does in the picture or not as prettily as you want it to? And have you had any recent cake disasters?
Beggar’s Chicken
Adapted from “Marion: Recipes and stories from a hungry cook” by Marion Grasby published by Pan Macmillan $49.99
- 1 bunch coriander (about 4-5 roots)
- 10 cloves garlic
- 10 black peppercorns
- 5 whole star anise
- 1.4-1.7 kilo/3-3.5lb. whole chicken
- Water
- 1/2 cup dark soy sauce (I used a mushroom flavoured one only because that’s all I had)
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 3 tablespoons palm sugar (or white sugar)
1. Cut the coriander about 4-5 cms or 2 inches from the root end. Rinse the coriander roots thoroughly under running water making sure to pull back the stems as a lot of dirt hides inside the roots. Reserve some leaves for garnishing. Place the roots in a mortar and pestle along with the peeled garlic and peppercorns and bash away to make a paste. You can do this in a small food processor but you will need to grind the peppercorns first as the food processor will not blitz them.
2. In a last saucepan or cast iron pot big enough to fit the chicken heat the vegetable oil over medium heat and add the coriander root paste and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add the whole chicken and cook on each side for 2 minutes until lightly golden. Add the soy and fish sauces, star anise, sugar and then add enough cold water to cover the chicken-it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t cover the chicken entirely, you can turn the chicken over halfway during the cooking process. Turn up the heat until it simmers gently and cook for about 1 hour. If the water doesn’t cover the chicken, after 30 minutes using a pair of tongs gently turn the chicken over.
The colour difference between the submerged chicken and the chicken that sits above the broth
3. Once done, carefully lift the chicken out of the stock and place on a serving plate. I let it cool down for a bit and used a pair of tongs in my right hand and a dishwashing glove on my left and that seemed to work just fine. Serve with steamed rice. Taste the stock and add more salt or soy if necessary (although the dark soy is strong stuff so go easy on it). Spoon some stock on the rice or you can use the stock as a base for noodle soups. I also found that I had so much of the leftover stock that I used it to make a flavoured rice. I just used the same amount of stock in place of water when boiling the rice and it came out a lovely glossy brown rice with a nice, mild flavour.
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76 Comments | Add your own
This is awesome. I made Tau Eu Kay (Sweet Soy Sauce Chicken) recently, this is sort of similar. Simple and delicious. You could call it ‘smashed pavlova’:)
A wonderful recipe! I bet that chicken is moist.
Cheers,
Rosa
Great recipe, I think my mother used to reheat the stock and then keep it in the fridge to reuse the next time. I’ve never been game to do anything like that!
i’ve had a few non-attractive pav moments myself..the chooks looking good though..i’m surprised at how deliciously dark it is when it’s only been boiled..must be the soy i guess..
wow – this looks delish!
What a lovely story Lorraine!
I always have cake disasters. I’m such an impatient baker, I’m always cutting corners. I’m also still getting used to the way my oven bakes since we moved house a year ago. Plenty of cremated specimens around here.
I was taught this method as “Red-cooked” and using cutup chicken parts.
Same result, but your whole chicken does look much prettier.
Unless I grow it myself, I can only get coriander here in bunches with the roots cut off – stems and elaves only.
Do you think the paste will work if I make it using the stems?
Ok, I’m the one in charge to bring the desserts for a lunch or for a dinner time, and I always suffer when we drive to our destination, roads in Peru are terrible…thanks God, ww, or my dessert arrives in a good condition.
Your chicken looks wonderful, I didn’t realize about the skin, for me looks perfect, with an excelent “tan”.
Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Now i know how beggar chicken should taste like. hehe
this recipe looks and sounds delicious! any copies of the book available for your readers?! I would like one especially as my name is MARION.
Yum!!
This sounds wonderful!!! I love a moist chicken that falls from the bone. I do have one problem, though. I can’t have garlic.
Is there something you can recommend as a substitute?
Thanks for all the lovely recipes and stories. And thank you for the conversions for those of us in the U.S.
I cannot wait to try this one! For some reason the idea of cooking a whole chicken on the stove top is very appealing to me and yet I have never done it. Nice work Lorraine! I would love to get my hands on Marion’s book. I am going to have to put it on my Xmas list.
I’ve just had breakfast but that chicken looks so yummy, I could ‘tear’ off some of that flesh right now!
I do get upset when something goes amiss as I always strive for perfection but sometimes things just don’t work out the way you predicted. Never mind, it’s a case of learning where you went wrong and remembering it for next time.
I love your story about the vivisection pavlova! Am glad the family still enjoyed it. Dare I ask about the no egg rule? I’m always having disasters but I still post them (burnt caramel and all) Your chicken looks so tasty, I want to reach in and tear into it!
I’ve shed quite a few tears over failed cake decorating recently. Normally I have an idea in my head that doesn’t quite look the same in reality.
I got Marian’s book as an engagement present. I can’t wait to make one of her recipes and I’ve ear-marked the slow-cooked lamb.
My cake adventures swing wildly from raving successes with people wanting the recipe, to having to store another mess in the freezer to make into a pudding!
I get very annoyed with a friend who just throws a failure in the bin. Unless something tastes vile, it can be eaten, one way or another!
Love the chicken, and I’m sure I would have wanted seconds of the pav!
I loved Marion when I saw her on Masterchef Australia but didn’t know she had a book out! So exciting.
Great recipe Lorraine!
Looks and sounds lovely, its on the list as soon as the new stove arrives next week.
The first time i cooked for my current partner was an absolute disaster. i was making him fresh pasta with prawns, the pasta failed as i didn’t have enough time and was in a rush. then as it and turns out he is allergic to tomato and lemons!..epic fail!
I can smell the chicken from here and my mouth is watering! Loved Marion on the show!
I think baking disasters are inevitable. Although some times I think my own standards are too high. Buoyed by my initial macaron success I whipped up a batch for a friend’s afternoon tea. They didn’t rise and looked (to my eyes) like deflated chocolate balloons. But they tasted great. Another time I attempted to make a 6inch mud cake – the skewer came out clean and it looked cooked so I took it out. Half an hour later, the centre had completely caved in and when I poked it, the centre was still raw batter. So much for my first two tier cake! Or there’s the time I made scones straight after cleaning the oven (using really caustic cleaner)…they tasted terrible. Couldn’t bake them for years after that!
OMG – haven’t made this for ages and it is about time, love it
! Look at the ads for Marion Grasby’s book every day and try to convince myself that I am entitled to a copy in spite of just having splurged on Paula Wolfert’s ‘Cooking of Morocco’! I too loved Marion on the show: wasn’t she ‘voted out’ on a technicality of too thick a satay sauce? Perhaps memory is playing tricks! Cake disasters: no, ’cause hardly bake 
! But regularly get hugely mad at myself when I make an error in savoury cooking and it does not ‘look right’ 
! Very much have a Type ‘A’ personality too!!!
OMG that chicken looks so delicious! I love the shot which shows the colour difference between the submerged chicken and the non submerged.
In my kitchen everything needs to be perfect. Thankfully I have children to eat my mistakes and get rid of the evidence of unattractive cookies or lopsided cakes.
Your chicken looks perfect!
Your beggar’s chicken looks wonderful. Don’t be like me and beat yourself up when things don’t turn out perfect, now I need to follow my own advice! Yes I get upset very easily when a dish does not turn out to my expectations, but only when it is being served to others that don’t live in my house. They are my experimental bunnies
Don’t worry about the torn skin your wonderful draping of coriander hides it LOL.
yes my recent gateau helene made i the wrong size tins got me upset, BUT everyone that ate it thought it was wonderful and only I worried about the shape of the layers.
Looks wonderful. I sometimes get upset if something doesn’t work in the kitchen, but I try to keep things in perspective. I’ve read Marion’s cook book and she says something similar – after she grew up in Papua New Guinea and saw extreme poverty, she said she doesn’t get upset when dishes work out less than perfect-looking as she is just grateful to have so much food at her disposal. So if something doesn’t work out, as long as it isn’t inedible, don’t worry.
Ah, that chicken looks amazing! I’ts on next weeks menu for sure.
As for cooking disasters…Mine is similar to yours.
My boyfriend and I had not been together for very long and his birthday was coming up. So I made a very technical choc ganache mud cake full of butter, cream and all things nice. It came together fine and I looked at it proudly thinking “I made that!”. Then 20 minutes later, a whole side of the cake collapsed and looked ridiculous. When he came home I burst into tears and he couldn’t work out what was wrong. I pointed at the cake and apologised. He found the whole scenario most funny!
It tasted pretty good though…
I’ve found it’s always easy to deflect the blame. With your Beggar’s Chicken, the problem is with the bird. It had skin that was too thin and how were you to know?
i tell you what, I LOOOOOVE pavlovas and would have eaten it even if looked like it had been dropped on the floor.. or possibly even if it HAD been dropped on the floor but dont tell anyone that!
Looks so delicious! I love the thought of tearing at it with my bare hands.
Oh that sucks! I hate it when it doesnt turn out, you feel awful but actually, majority of the time is tastes great so no one cares haha.
Love the look of this chicken – the skin looks great!
Belinda Jeffrey also has a very similar recipe and it has keycap manis in it aswell. Amazing. And the stock lasts in the fridge which I add to stir frys etc! Yum!
It’s strange; this is so different from the beggar’s chicken I grew up with, which is is cooked by wrapping and baking it. Instead, this recipe is so similar to soy sauce chicken!
I get terribly upset when my food doesnt turn out how I wanted.
I’ve been known to have a big sook about it!
This chicken looks amazing!
I really want to cook it
Marion should open a restaurant.
First, your chicken looks wonderful! The flavors sound delicious too. And, yes, of course, I’ve had several disasters. I usually go to lengths to fix the problem, and when it’s just plain ugly, I skip the photos!
There’s a place in San Francisco that makes this the traditional way — cooked for hours all wrapped in clay. Then, it’s brought to your table and you get a mallet to whack it open. It’s quite fun — and boy, is it tasty.
I love the way the skin colored. I have this book and like it, have to try this recipe. And use the stock for rice, sounds beautiful.
I am devastated when my food looks aweful when I’m sharing it. I would have definitely cried.
This looks so delicious – the colour of the chicken is fantastic. From time to time, things always go wrong with cakes and cooking in general. Once, I would have gotten upset, but now it just bounces off, as most things are salvagable.
Not quite a disaster, but on Tuesday night I experimented with cutting down my date nut meringue torte recipe by a third and baking it free-form for just my friend and I, and I perhaps left it in the oven a bit long and it was more crunchy at the edges than deliciously chewy. But still deliciously crunchy
P.S. I wouldn’t even have noticed the tear if you hadn’t mentioned it! I was focussing on the halo of coriander
The colour difference in the chicken in the broth is pretty cool. I’ve got a whole chicken needing to be cooked, and this is very different to my usual roast chicken! I might give it a go
I think it’s great that you’ve shown what it looks like. I always feel sad when my dishes don’t turn out pretty as I love the visual aspect of food.
When I made my Bombe Alaska I was sad that I’d smeared the red sorbet over the creamy ice-cream and discoloured it, but that’s what happens when cutting it at home so it’s ok…
@ Victoria – I was not overawed when Belinda Jeffery was on TV: and THEN, I bought her first book and actually cooked, recipe after recipe after recipe from it and loved them all
! Yes, I DO remember the one with kecap manis and I, too, do carefully refrigerate the stock, bring it up to boil ere using and reuse it 1-3 times after in a multitude of ways . . . 
)
Honey not only this chicken looks so delicious, it looks so pretty…
Infact I could not see any ripped skin anywhere…
This is such an awesome recipe…
And about the the cake, I am sure it must have tasted damn good.
I have not only baked an ugly looking cake but it was hard like a rock… Best part we were married after 6 months lol…
This chicken looks really delicious! Love the type of spices and the dark rich stock!!
One of the places I worked didn’t like us making too ‘perfect’ looking food as they wanted the clients to know that it was all freshly made in-house. It was a nice idea, and handy when things like the rips happened, but my OCD tendencies struggled!
Pavlovas never travel well, but they always taste awesome. Next time call it an Eton Mess and say that’s the way it’s supposed to look
My pavlovas have all bee looking a bit dodgy lately. I don’t know what I am doing wrong. They always taste OK, how can meringue taste bad?
I’m not familiar with cooking the whole chicken, but I want to make this so bad. Looks soooo good and it looks juicy and oh my the sauce looks amazing!
Awe your pavlova story was so sweet & lovely! Your inlaws sound wonderful
& this chicken looks amazing!!!!! YUM!
Heidi xo
I get SO disappointed when I have a cake disaster. I always have an idea of how it should turn out in my head, so if it doesn’t work it feels like a failure. But the good thing about cake is you can generally disguise the lumps and bumps with a dusting of icing sugar or dollop of cream, and it usually tastes just as good
That chicken looks outstanding! Great photos, and I’m definitely taking note of that recipe.
Mini-masterchef Mr 10 loves to cook dinner, and recently chose a spatchcock chicken prepared by the local butcher. He doused it in garlic, olive oil and rosemary and we cooked it for the 45 minutes the butcher had advised. Except in our oven it took more like 90 minutes? Which is nothing, except for an Aspergers child, it is the end of the world, and of course it was All Mums’s Fault, and there was much gnashing of teeth and tearing of clothes before we finally got a trusted auntie to declare it all cooked. Then he served it up himself and it was declared delicious.
Seriously, it would be easier to cook and prepare myself but I hope that one day I am making someone a perfect partner – or at least a self-sufficient single!
Thank you for posting this, it is exactly the recipe I was looking for. I have had many a disaster making cakes, the latest were all posted. I strongly believe in posting things the way they are. Keeping it real.
vivisection pav – sounds perfect for halloween
but seriously I can imagine your horror
I think the picture of the chicken looks lovely – surely it is flawless like all your pics!
Nice story…lots of life lessons there. I never get too upset when things go wrong in the kitchen as I try to teach my cooking students that part of the process is learning from mistakes–just like life. I do,however, get a bit miffed because in class I just don’t have time to set up photos properly–they are always done on the run–and I regret that.
Beggar Chicken…yum…haven’t had that for ages. Nice recipe.
I think it looks delicious! I served up some homely looking cupcakes last weekend…it happens.
Haven’t even heard of this dish, but it looks wonderful, Lorraine!
Hi Lorraine, I wouldn’t have thought I would like a boiled chicken recipe, but this looks entirely appetizing. Years ago I made a paella for my family and didn’t actually count on how long the rice would take to cook. It seemed to take forever, and when I served it, my young cousin said ‘this rice is Al Dente’
It completely depends on the audience. If it’s close family, I’m ok. If it’s people I don’t know very well, I get pretty upset with myself if things don’t work out the way I want (though have found trawling ruined cake through ice cream and re freezing in a loaf pan as a ‘terrine’ a saving grace a few times…
SHould I be ashamed that I don’t see those tears you talk about? That chicken looks GOOD to me
The chicken looks fabulous! I enjoyed the story so much! So brave of you to serve it and so sweet of them to be so nice. I’m very hard on myself but lately have been trying to take a page from Julia Childs – “never apologize and never make excuses.” xoxo Mum
Thanks for making my Mum’s Beggar’s Chicken Lorraine…I reckon yours looks better than mine…and my Mum’s but shhh don’t tell her! I’m not as careful with the skin as you are because i’m always too hungry to be patient
xx
This is definitely man-catching chicken. It looks divine. I remember making a chocolate truffle cake for my husbands birthday a few years back and in my haste, forget to add the 1/2 cup flour. Oh well, sighed the family and poured the ‘cake’ over ice cream declaring it delicious. We all have disasters occasionally, ah the best laid plans of mice and men
x
Oh dear what a funny story about the pav-to-impress.
Chicken looks and sounds good.
For me the taste is more important than the presentation so I don’t worry about minor imperfections.
I have been known to get extremely upset with myself when something doesn’t turn out – usually it’s for a dinner party or lunch with friends, the most disastrous being empanadas that I pre-made and let sit for a few hours so the pastry broke and all of the oil oozed out, and pannacotta that didn’t set and was more like custard that oozed all over the plate… I do try and keep perspective but it is still terribly disappointing! This chicken looks awesome – definintely going to try it!
Of course I get upset whether the disaster is real or imaginary. I always assume the worst. And this chicken is fabulous!
I can’t believe that skin has come out looking like that after being cooked in liquid! It looks delicious!
If you hadn’t mentioned the torn skin, I wouldn’t have even noticed it! The coriander works well to hide it!
Didn’t realise that Marion had a book, how exciting for her!
That’s a very unique chicken recipe! It looks gorgeous!
oh every now and then i get the occasional cake disaster where it’s too moist or too heavy
but i try to dress it up to hide the faults haha
First off, this chicken is exactly how I want my chicken..and in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever roasted, poached, grilled etc, a chicken without the skin tearing – in my life!
I’ve had plenty of cake disasters, my most recent being the banana-ginger carrot cake on my blog. Severe humidity, but the AC was running, so I proceeded to pipe an intricate basket weave around the sides. Since the room was cool, and there was no room in the fridge, I left it out on the table for photos later on. When we got home – the AC had died and each layer had slid to the side..like the leaning tower of Pisa. Basket weave ruined. I slopped it together with a frosting spatula..stuck some carrot fronds in my marzipan carrots..and took the photos. Wasn’t happy, but after the photos, we all enjoyed it, and that was all that really mattered, like your pavlova. I miss not ‘needing’ to take photos of everything I make LOL!!
i have such high standards for myself, i find disappointment a lot with what i make. fortunately, others don’t take things as seriously as i and seem suitably impressed most of the time!
This Chicken recipe looks devine and is one I’ll definately cook when I return from Melb. next week! It reminds me of my ‘other’ fav. ‘Chic Dish’ …Soy Sauce Chicken..it will be interesting to compare the two.
On the disaster front ..I have had a few. Perhaps the one to top the lot was back in my catering days when I had a couple of hundred guests for a lunch. Pride of place were my Creme Patissiere Fruit Tarts, all shiny and studed very precisely like gemstones with inlayed patterns of strawberries, blueberries raspberries etc..lots of work and hours invested. Unfortunately they dropped one of the larger creations!! Fortunately I had made an extra!!
I always did a backup after that episode!
Susie Q
Hi Lorraine, absolutely loved the pavlova story.
Too cute!
Tho I do wonder if Mr NQN’s brother’s name is real? Or are they just not to be revealed?
Anyhoo, speaking about recipes not-working, I find them with almost all Japan originated recipe. I kid you not, every recipe I find in Japanese recipe books, in English and Japanese, always fail to deliver. After so many tries, I’ve decided to no longer follow them to the t and just make it up as I go along, using the recipes as basic guidance. Safe me the misery of lamenting over yet another recipe failure.
Hi Lorraine, absolutely loved the pavlova story.
Too cute!
Tho I do wonder if Mr NQN’s brother’s name is real? Or are they just not to be revealed?
Anyhoo, speaking about recipes not-working, I find them with almost all Japan originated recipe. I kid you not, every recipe I find in Japanese recipe books, in English and Japanese, always fail to deliver. After so many tries, I’ve decided to no longer follow them to the t and just make it up as I go along, using the recipes as basic guidance. Save me the misery of lamenting over yet another recipe failure.
I have made many a vivisection dish, and the important part is curtailing the “RUINED FOREVER” nervous breakdown reaction. And I mostly don’t do it anymore. Mostly.
Told you I HAD to make this. Looooved it. I linked to your post in my post.
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