Soy Sauce Chicken, traditionally a Cantonese Dish, a.k.a 豉油鸡 where the chicken is poached in spices infused soy sauce marinade.
Though a simple dish, one of the stall selling soy sauce chicken was awarded 1 Michelin Star for their flavorsome, toothsome Soy Sauce Chicken.
I love the flavor of this dish and yet I prefer the silky Smooth texture of the Hainanese Style chicken. As such, I did an experiment of using both the cooking method of soy sauce chicken and Hainanese Chicken. And the result is surprisingly successful.
In this recipe, I used Feng He Dark and light soy sauce.
If you cannot get hold of it, just use any caramelised and thick dark soy sauce. You can also substitute Rose Wine with Hua Diao Wine.
Also, the poaching liquid of 4 litres is more than enough to poach a big chicken. There is no need to multiply the quantity although the chicken used in this recipe is 1 kg. Just adjust the cooking time accordingly
And Here’s the recipe of my hybrid Soy Sauce Chicken.
An hour before cooking, bring the cleaned chicken to kitchen counter.
Marinate with salt and rose wine for an hour. This will also allow the chicken to come to room temperature before cooking
Then.. saute ginger and spring onions in heated sesame oil over medium high heat for about 30 seconds until ginger and spring onions start to brown and become fragrant
Then add in the bag of spices (with chopped garlic, star anise, cinnamon and cloves)..
Into the pot of ginger and spring onions
Then add water and the remaining seasoning. Bring to boil.
Lower the heat to the lowest and allow it to simmer for 15 mins to bring out the aroma of the spices and herbs
Turn the heat back to medium high after 15 minutes of simmering and allow the poaching liquid to come to boil.
When boiled, add in the Marinated chicken (with breast facing up to prevent overcooking of the breast)
Allow the liquid to boil after adding in the chicken. Then lower the heat to lowest heat, cover with lid, and let it continue to simmer for another 5 mins (10 minutes for bigger chicken like 1.4 kg; this recipe used 1 kg chicken).
Refrain from opening the lid!
After 5 mins of simmering (or 10 mins for bigger chicken), then TURN OFF THE FIRE! Do not remove the lid and allow the chicken to poach in the braising liquid for 40 mins for 1 kg chicken (about 50 mins for 1.4 kg chicken); or until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the chicken ( which is the thigh) reaches 73 degree celsius, test using a meat thermometer.
When the poaching time is up, carefully raise the chicken from the poaching liquid and allow it to cool on chopping board
Chop the chicken up when cool and drizzle a generous scoop of reheated poaching liquid over the chicken before serving
Enjoy!
- 1 Whole Chicken (About 1 kg)
- 1 tablespoon Salt
- 2 tablespoons Rose Wine (玫瑰露)
- 2 tablespoons Sesame Oil
- 40g Ginger (Sliced)
- 100g Spring Onions (Cut into stalk of each about 8 cm)
- 4 tablespoon Chopped Garlic
- 40 pcs of Cloves
- 4 sticks of Cinnamon
- 8 Pcs of Star Anise
- 4 litres of water
- 360 ml Caramelised Dark Soy Sauce (Thick Kind)
- 240 ml Light Soy Sauce
- 240 ml Rose Wine
- 2 tablespoon Salt
- 2 tablespoon Sugar
- An hour before cooking, bring the cleaned chicken to kitchen counter.
- Marinate with salt and rose wine for an hour. *This allow the chicken to come to room temperature before cooking
- Heat the sesame oil in a deep pot (big enough to hold the paching liquid and submerge the chicken) over medium high heat
- Add in ginger and spring onions and saute for about 30 sec until both starts to brown
- Put garlic, cloves, cinnamon, star anise into a spice bag and add the spice bag into the pot
- Add all the remaining ingredients for the poaching liquid into the pot and bring to boil
- Lower to lowest heat and allow it to simmer for 15 mins to bring out the aroma of the spices and herbs
- Then bring it back to medium high heat and allow the poaching liquid to come to boil again
- When boiled, add in the Marinated chicken (with breast facing up to prevent overcooking of the breast)
- Allow the liquid to boil after adding in the chicken.
- Then lower the heat to lowest heat, cover with lid, and let it continue to simmer for another 5 mins for a 1 kg chicken then turn off the fire (10 minutes for bigger chicken like 1.4 kg). Do not open the lid during poaching
- Allow the chicken to poach in the poaching liquid for 40 mins for 1 kg chicken (about 50 mins for 1.4 kg chicken); or until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the chicken ( which is the thigh) reaches 73 degree celsius, test using a meat thermometer.
- When the poaching time is up, carefully raise the chicken from the poaching liquid and allow it to cool on chopping board
- Remove the chicken from the poaching liquid and allow it to cool before chopping up the chicken
- Drizzle a generous scoop of reheated poaching liquid over the chopped chicken before serving