Sesame Shredded Chicken - 手撕鸡 - Hand pulled chicken

This is a fantastic summer dish that goes well with rice, noodles, in a sandwich or as a standalone appetizer. 

A plate of cold noodles, with some pounded cucumber salad and a place of chicken is the best meal on a hot summers day. 

Cold shredded chicken, acting as a delicious canvas for a variety of sauces and spices. 

I usually prefer to make this to serve as a leftover after cooking Hainanese Chicken Rice (as long as your pot is big enough, it takes just as long to boil two chickens as it does to cook one chicken). 

If making the one pot rice cooker version of chicken rice, it's quite easy to marinate more chicken thighs at once, and to load up more chicken into the rice cooker.

Are leftovers still considered leftovers when I deliberately make extras so I can have a cold snack later on? 

This dish is very easy to make. It's as easy as dumping leftover scallion oil / dipping sauce / soy sauce onto shredded leftover chicken and storing it in the fridge for up to 4 days. Shred using your hands, or a fork and chopsticks. 

It also works well with leftover dry chicken breasts, as the sauce often helps to moisten the chicken a little. 

If you don't have leftover chicken, cook your chicken anyway you like, trying your best not to overcook it. Shred the chicken when cool to the touch, discarding bones (which you can save for stock). To reduce calories, I also discard skin and chunks of fat. 

Sauce is than added and mixed with the shredded chicken, and sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Store chilled in the fridge. 

This dish is done differently all over the world. When I assemble my sauce, I think about various flavor profiles. I'm going to avoid giving a recipe here, but more of a flavor guideline with suggestions on what ingredients to use for each category. 

Use what you have, and even choose multiple ingredients from each category. BUT add each ingredient individually, in small quantities. 
Mix well, and taste as you go ;-

1) Savory - Usually a little soy sauce is used. I'm fond of using the Scallion oil dipping sauce from making chicken rice. A little light or dark soy sauce also helps. I've used fish sauce and oyster sauce as well, with good results. I plan on testing miso next. The cold dish is a good way to consume probiotics from these fermented salt substitutes. 

2) Sour - Adding a little vinegar or lime / lemon juice to this dish wakes up the flavors. Using live vinegar also has a probiotic effect. 

3) Sweetness - I have a heavy bias towards Chicken rice dark soy sauce for that rich smokey caramel flavor. Kecap Manis is also a good substitute, as is some honey. Sugar works in a pinch. I intend to try ketchup next time. 

4) Spicy - I generally enjoy this dish as a cool summer dish, but it also works well with a little chili oil, or some cracked black pepper. I've also had this with fresh szechuan peppercorn powder, for a slight mala flavor. A few drops of tengjiao oil giving it a strong mala flavor is fantastic. A touch of sour mustard is also very interesting. 

5) 香 Xiang - Fragrance. After we have assembled the basic flavors, we can enhance it

Sesame Sauce - Tahini with optional toasted peanut butter sauce, with some toasted sesame oil to help the sauce flow better. If not using tahini or peanut oil, a generous drizzle of toasted sesame oil also works well. 

Mayonnaise - I've never tried it, but could imagine that this might appeal to some. 

Spices - Cumin / 5 spice powder / Turmeric / Paprika / Garam Masala etc - a light dusting of these powders can add a certain something extra to the flavors of the dish. I've also had good results with various combinations of this. 

Sesame Seeds - This adds a little crunch to the dish, and I feel it's essential to offer some variety in texture from the soft succulent chicken.