Peking-Style Chicken

This chicken dinner is inspired by Peking duck, a Chinese dish beloved by my family. Making traditional Peking duck is a time-consuming and labor-intensive affair: For ultracrisp lacquered skin, cooks dunk the bird in a pot of boiling water to render the fat and tighten the skin. They then brush the bird in a syrup—usually maltose or honey, which gives the duck its signature dark brown shine—and air-dry it for several days. Before roasting, air is blown between the skin and the meat to stretch it out, allowing extra fat to drip out during the cooking process.

With this Peking-inspired chicken, I take a different, far easier route. Since chicken is leaner than duck, I skip the boiling water bath entirely and increase the fat by rubbing vegetable oil not just on the outside of the bird but also between the skin and flesh. As the chicken roasts, the oil bubbles, stretching the skin and separating it from the meat, which makes it crisp up. Instead of using a syrup, I dry-brine the chicken with a fragrant mixture of dark brown sugar, kosher salt, and five-spice powder.

I serve the chicken like I would a Peking duck: with Chinese pancakes, sliced scallions, cucumber, and hoisin sauce. You can order the wrappers online or find them in an Asian supermarket; I recommend having at least 4–5 wrappers per person. If you absolutely cannot find them, you can use flour tortillas or lettuce wraps instead. Nothing will ever be as good as Peking duck itself, but this inspired and less-laborious chicken is what I make during the holidays when I’m homesick and want to make something fun and festive for my family and friends.

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