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  • • 1. Prepare to boil chicken
  • • 2. How to boil delicious and beautiful chicken for offerings
  • • 3. How many minutes to boil chicken?

1. Prepare to boil chicken

To boil a delicious offering chicken with shiny golden skin and beautiful shape, you must be very focused and meticulous throughout the preparation and boiling process. The secret to boiling a beautiful offering chicken lies in 3 main steps: choosing the chicken, slaughtering and shaping the chicken, and boiling the chicken.

How to choose chicken for offering

To have a beautiful offering chicken, first we must choose a good chicken.

To have a beautiful offering chicken, first we must choose a good chicken (Photo: VTC News).

You should choose a rooster that weighs about 1.2-1.5 kg after being slaughtered. You should not buy a chicken that is too big because it will be less beautiful when displayed on a tray, and the meat will be tougher.

Choose chickens with bright red combs, evenly raised, smooth feathers, agile, tight yellow skin, full breast, some dark yellow areas such as wings, breast, back; no bruises, pale, no black spots, rash, small legs.

For ready-to-eat chickens, choose chickens with naturally light yellow skin, thin and even all over the body, firm meat, small tailbone, and little fat in the neck and thighs.

How to butcher and shape a chicken for worship

With the chicken for worship, you cannot cut it open like you would for normal fried, roasted or boiled dishes, but you have to cut it open to create a beautiful shape and avoid the skin from shrinking. You should cut the legs off from the elbow to avoid the skin from shrinking when boiled, causing the thighs to crack.

To create the chicken pose, use a sharp knife to cut both sides of the chicken's neck, and insert the wings toward the mouth through these two lines. Be careful and skillful so that the wings do not bend or break but still point outward.

If you like the chicken to fly, gently bend the two wings towards the back, and tie the joints of the two wings together. Note that the tightness should be moderate to avoid creating marks or tearing the skin after boiling.

2. How to boil delicious and beautiful chicken for offerings

Put the chicken in a deep pot with the belly facing down, along with ginger, crushed onions and a little salt, pour in enough water to cover the chicken and place on the stove. Put the chicken in the pot while the water is still cold to help the chicken gradually cook from the outside in, without cracking the skin. If the chicken is frozen, you must defrost it completely before boiling.

Delicious and beautiful offering chicken (Photo: Dan Viet)

Because the belly skin that touches the bottom of the pot is very easy to crack, the experience is to put the chicken in a deep bowl and then put it in the pot of water, both to shape the chicken and to ensure the skin is beautiful and does not crack.

If you want the chicken offering to have yellow skin, not to have blood stains or to not be spoiled, you should boil the chicken's blood and organs in another small pot, not in the same pot as the offering chicken.

3. How many minutes to boil chicken?

When boiling the chicken for offering, you should set the heat to medium, open the lid slightly, boil it and skim off all the foam. After boiling for 5 minutes, turn off the heat and soak the chicken in the pot for another 15-20 minutes, so the chicken skin does not shrink and crack.
To keep the chicken skin plump and not discolored, after the chicken is cooked, let it cool, then remove it and dip it in boiled water to cool and add a few ice cubes.

To make the chicken skin more shiny and golden, you can mix chicken fat with a little turmeric juice, spread a thin layer over the entire surface of the chicken.

The way to boil the chicken offering above is simple, right? I wish you have a beautiful, uncracked golden chicken offering to offer on New Year's Eve of the Lunar New Year At Ty 2025.