Velvet Chicken Royal with Slow-Cooked Essence and Crispy Skin

Place the chicken wings, water, and sea salt into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on Low for 6 hours to extract all gelatin and rich flavor. Strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth, discarding the solid wings. Pour the strained broth into a saucepan and reduce over medium heat until you have exactly 200ml of deeply concentrated, sticky chicken essence.

Gently whisk the egg yolks in a heatproof bowl. Slowly ladle 150ml of the warm, reduced chicken essence into the yolks in a thin stream, whisking constantly to temper the eggs. Season with sea salt. Pass the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer twice to eliminate bubbles. Pour evenly into two shallow, heatproof ceramic bowls. Cover tightly with foil and steam over low heat for 12 to 15 minutes until set but still retaining a gentle wobble.

Carefully peel the skin off the chicken thighs in intact pieces. Season the thigh meat with salt and sear in a hot skillet with duck fat until cooked through; shred the meat into delicate bite-sized pieces. Place the chicken skin flat between two sheets of parchment paper, pressed between two heavy baking sheets. Bake at 180C (350F) for 15 minutes until perfectly flat, golden, and shatteringly crisp.

Arrange a neat mound of the warm, shredded thigh meat in the center of the set custard. Drizzle the remaining 50ml of warm chicken essence glaze directly over the meat. Prop a shard of crispy chicken skin atop the mound and finish with a delicate sprinkle of flaky sea salt.