White-cut chicken with black sesame

1.Rinse chicken under cold water, drain and remove excess fat and skin from the cavity and around the neck. Remove the parson’s nose and discard. Place the chicken in a large saucepan, add spring onion, coriander, ginger, peppercorns, ¼ tsp sea salt flakes and enough water to cover the chicken well. Cover and bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave chicken to stand for 1 hour. Place in a container with enough cooking liquid to cover and refrigerate until chilled (3-4 hours). Remove chicken and pat dry. Remove the breast meat and carve into 1cm-thick slices.

2.For black sesame dressing, whisk all the ingredients in a bowl with 20ml of water, adding more if the sauce is too thick.

3.For spring onion oil, warm oil in a saucepan over low heat to 70C. Add spring onions and remove from the heat. Leave to cool for 3 minutes, then transfer to a blender and purée at high speed. Refrigerate to cool (1 hour), then strain through a fine sieve.

4.To serve, spoon black sesame dressing on a platter, arrange cucumber slices on top, then sliced chicken and season with sea salt flakes. Drizzle spring onion oil around the dish, sprinkle with Sichuan pepper and scatter with leaves.