Chicken chintan and paitan

TIME4 hours MAKESAbout 4L of stock PORTION
0.5x 1x 2x 3x

A paitan (derived from the Chinese baitang, meaning white soup) is a Japanese style of emulsified stock. Rather than carefully simmering meat and bones to get a clear stock (chintan) as-in the French tradition, a paitan is cooked at a rolling boil — resulting in the bones and fat emulsifying into the stock, resulting in a rich, creamy, broth.

Here, a chicken paitan is made as a ‘second stock’ — simply take the leftover bones from making a clear chicken chintan (clear stock), add more water, and cook at a boil to make a paitan. As a result, you get two stocks for the price of one — similar to the French remouillage.

Asian-style stocks use typically fewer vegetables than western-style chicken stock — and especially for a paitan, adding vegetables is preferable towards the end of cooking. However here we add garlic and ginger for flavour, and potato for starch when making the second stock, as the starch helps to maintain the emulsification.

INGREDIENTS

  • ~1.5kg chicken bones (chopped up or cut into smaller pieces using kitchen shears)1
  • ~500g chicken feet (toenails trimmed)
  • 1 potato (russet or royal blue, chopped into small cubes)
  • 1 inch ginger (thinly sliced)
  • 4-6 garlic cloves

Dashi

  • 250ml (1 cup) water
  • 10g kombu
  • 1-2 dried shiitake mushrooms (optional)

Vegetables (optional)

You can optionally infuse vegetables such as carrots, onions, leeks, spring onions, or cabbage into the stock.

STEPS

Dashi

  1. Combine the ingredients for the dashi in an airtight container, and place in the fridge for at least 6 hours, but preferably overnight.

First stock (chintan)

  1. Place the ginger and garlic cloves into a pressure cooker, followed by the chicken feet, bones, and carcass. Fill with water to the maximum pressure cooker level (typically about 4.5L).

  2. Pressure cook on high for 45 minutes. When done, vent the pressure manually to ensure a clear stock.

  3. Strain the chintan, and add half the prepared dashi and kombu to the hot stock to steep for 30 minutes. You can optionally strain the stock over some diced vegetables, such as carrots, onions, leeks, spring onion, or cabbage, to infuse into the stock. Remove the kombu, allow to cool, and then transfer into 2 cup portions and freeze.

Second stock (paitan)

  1. Return the chicken bones to the pressure cooker, along with the diced potato. Fill with water to the maximum pressure cooker level again, and pressure cook on high for 1 hour. When done you can choose to naturally release the pressure, or vent the pressure manually — it does not matter that the stock will be brought up to a rapid boil, as we are not aiming for a clear stock.

  2. Transfer the contents to a large saucepan on the stove top on high heat (if you are using an InstantPot with stovetop-safe inner pot, simply move the pot to the stove), and allow it to come to a boil. Leave for 30 minutes. At this stage, emulsification should have started — the broth will appear a milky white colour, however if left fat will likely still separate and rise to the top.

  3. The bones should now be soft enough that they are vulnerable to a squeeze of tongs. Using an immersion blender, blend the contents of the pot (stock, bones and all!). The emulsification will now appear much more stable — if you would like, you can continue to boil for another 30 minutes to 1 hour, regularly topping up the water level and stirring to ensure the sediments don’t burn on the bottom.2

  4. Remove the dashi from the fridge, and shake vigorously. Turn of the heat, and add the remainder of the dashi and kombu to the stock. You can optionally add some diced vegetables, such as carrots, onions, leeks, spring onion, or cabbage, to infuse into the stock. Leave to infuse for 15 minutes.

  5. Strain the paitan through a fine-meshed sieve (or a sieve lined with cheesecloth) into a metal bowl. Allow to cool, and then transfer into 2 cup portions and freeze.

NOTES

It is normal for the paitan to separate while freezing. To bring it back together, simply bring it to a rapid boil. To help bring back the emulsion faster, you can also use an immersion blender.

If you like, you can skip the first stock and go straight to paitan, like I do in my duck paitan recipe. Simply skip the chintan section, and pressure cook the paitan for 1.5 hours.

  1. You can include cooked or raw chicken. ↩︎
  2. For an even stronger emulsion, you can transfer some of the contents to a blender, blend until smooth, and then transfer back to the pot. ↩︎

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