Roasted Hot and Sour Chicken Soup

2 kg Chicken Carcass
2 Onion
1 Carrot
100 g Celery
20 g Garlic
100 g Tomato paste
10 g Dried chilly flakes
20 g Schezwan dried peppers
300 ml rice vinegar
100 ml light soy sauce
2 kg Chicken
1 egg
Spring onions to garnish

Roast the bones, make sure you have removed all the organs and cleaned the carcass. Once very brown add them to a pot of diced onions, carrots and celery, sauté all and add some tomato puree. Then add 3 liters of water, we want an intense flavour.

Simmer for 2 hours and strain, once chilled put in the fridge for 24 hours to let the fat solidify. Take out and remove the fat — keep the chicken fat for cooking something else.

Next use a 24-hour brined whole chicken around 1.5-2 kg and roast it for 2 hours at 150 degrees, for the final 10 minutes turn up the heat to add Unami on the skin, and again keep the pan fat and juices.

Before the chicken has cooled down shred the breast and leg and keep to one side as you eat the wings.

Take the skimmed stock and bring to a simmer, add Schezwan dried pepper, light soy sauce and dried chili, simmer for around 30 minutes, check the heat, if the spice is right strain and add back to the pot.

Once added back to the pot, add rice vinegar, and adjust the amount to balance hot and sour.

Arrange in a bowl with roasted shredded chicken and raw shitake mushrooms- pour over the hot soup and drip in egg beaten eggs, garnish with pickled ginger and spring onion tops.

A real winter warmer — serve with prawn crackers and crispy chicken skin — now that’s another recipe with a headache, crispy chicken skin.