No water chicken soup

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

Add the onion and leek with salt and stir; once hot and steaming, cover tightly and cook about 10 minutes.

Remove the lid, letting all the condensation drop back into the pot. Add the carrots, celery and mushrooms, then the apple, then the cabbage and escarole.

Press down by hand, cover and cook another 10 minutes, until the vegetables collapse enough to fit the chicken; return all condensation to the pot and stir.

Make a space in the centre and set in the whole chicken; top with a generous sprinkling of salt and a sprinkling of cayenne, and lay the sliced ginger over the top.

Cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer gently, untouched, about 1 1/2 hours depending on the size of the chicken; a smaller one may be ready in an hour.

Taste the broth for salt. Push tongs through the thigh joint to release the pocket of juices.

Pull off meat and serve with broth and vegetables; in each bowl add a splash of rice vinegar, a splash of soy sauce, a spoon of sambal and sliced green onions.

Variation: stir ginger, garlic, green onion and sambal with rice vinegar and soy into a dipping sauce; serve the broth as is and dip the meat in the sauce.