Red Cooked Chicken

Chicken simmered in a dark soy liquid that is kept and used again.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, about 1.4 kg, or 8 thighs
• 400 ml light soy sauce, for the braising liquid, which is kept and used again
• 100 ml dark soy sauce, for the braising liquid
• 150 ml Shaoxing wine
• 60 g rock sugar
• 1.2 litres water
• 4 star anise
• 1 piece cassia bark
• a thumb of ginger, sliced
• 3 spring onions, halved

Method

1. Put everything except the chicken in a deep pot and bring it to the boil, then simmer 15 minutes so the spices give themselves up before the bird goes in.
2. Lower the chicken in. It should be covered; add water if it is not.
3. Simmer very gently for 35 minutes, turning it once at halfway. The liquid should move but not roll.
4. Turn the heat off and leave the chicken in the liquid for a further 30 minutes. It carries on cooking and, more to the point, carries on taking up colour.
5. Lift it out and brush it with a little of the liquid. Let it cool to warm before chopping — hot, the skin tears away from the flesh.
6. KEEP THE LIQUID. Strain it, cool it, and freeze it. It is the thing being built here: used again it is darker and rounder each time, and a master liquid kept going for months is better than anything made fresh.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes