The chicken is cooked in a saucepan and the result is moist, tender and
flavoursome with a touch of Chinese style spices.

Wash your chicken inside and out, place in the cavity of the chicken
several pieces of peeled fresh ginger, a bruised stem of lemon grass,
parsley and 1/2 a lemon.

Make up the cooking liquid, enough to just cover the chicken in the pot:
1 1/2 cups of a dark Soy Sauce
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 cup of red wine vinegar (or balsamic vinegar, even red wine or port!)
2 tablespoons of dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice Powder
8 whole Star Anise
2 cloves of garlic roughly chopped.

Pour onto and around the chicken in the pot and then heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
Turn the chicken over and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes.
Turn off the heat source, pop the lid on and leave to finish cooking in the poachingliquid for about 30 minutes.

Gently remove from sauce, take care, it may be fragile.
Rather than try to carve, cut the whole chicken into manageable pieces.
To add an extra flavour, brush the skin with sesame oil, which will enhance the glaze appearance, before cutting.

Some of the poaching liquid can be put into a separate small saucepan and with the addition of a thickening agent such as arrowroot or cornflour made into an accompanying sauce. The poaching liquid can be kept for another use. Chicken pieces and drumsticks cooked in this manner are ideal for picnic food.