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1
Place the chicken legs (or whole chicken) in a pot and cover with cold water. Add the ginger slices and bruised scallions. Bring to a bare simmer over medium heat — never a rolling boil — and poach at approximately 20 minutes per kilogram of meat. The chicken is done when the juices run clear at the thickest part of the thigh and the flesh yields without resistance when probed.
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2
Immediately lift the chicken from the poaching liquid and plunge it into a bowl of iced water. Hold there until the flesh is cold to the core — the abrupt chill arrests carry-over cooking and firms the skin. Reserve 100 ml of the poaching stock, skim it, and allow it to cool. The chicken is ready to proceed when no warmth remains at the bone.
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3
Combine the 200 ml Shaoxing wine, 100 ml cooled poaching stock, salt, sugar, and 2 slices of ginger in a bowl or lidded container large enough to hold the chicken. Stir until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Add the wolfberries if a sweeter marinade is desired. Taste: the liquid should be savoury, gently sweet, and carry the full nutty depth of the wine without any harsh alcoholic edge.
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4
This is where the dish lives or dies: lower the cooled chicken into the marinade so that it is completely submerged. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 24 hours; 48 hours is strongly preferable. At 24 hours the wine note is faint; only at 48 hours does the wine fully permeate the meat, producing the amber-tinted, deeply wine-scented flesh that defines zui ji. At no point should the chicken be left at room temperature.
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5
Remove the chicken from the marinade. Slice cleanly across the grain into pieces suitable for a cold platter. Strain the marinade and spoon it over the slices. The flesh should be a faint amber at the surface, ivory within, and exhale the nutty fragrance of aged Shaoxing wine the moment it is cut.