Soy Sauce Chicken Recipe

Soy Sauce Chicken is a quintessential Cantonese favorite. It is very common as a siu mei dish in Hong Kong. The cooking method for soy sauce chicken is similar to the poached chickens recipe, but the similarities end there. Stewed soy sauce, aromatics and spices are the essence of this dish.  I use hormone-free frozen chicken without the use of preservatives.  It tastes as great as fresh chicken if you know how to defrost frozen food correctly.

Ingredients

• 900 gSadia Whole Chicken
• 100 ml Soy Sauce
• 40 g Raw Rock Sugar
• 3 tbsp Rose-flavored Rice Wine (Mei Kwei Lu) or Shaoxing Wine
• 300 ml Water 300 ml
• 3 pcs Thinly Sliced Ginger
• 2 stalks of  Spring Onion

Spice (Optional)

• 1 small piece Chinese cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorn
• 2 pieces Licorice

Shallots & Garlic Sauce

• 2 Shallots
• 1 Solo Garlic
• 100 ml Water

Sadia Website  http://bit.ly/1W7YyuA

Instructions

1.  Move the Sadia frozen chicken from freezer to cooler compartment. Let it defrost for over night.

2.  Prepare a big bowl of ice water.

3. Rub salt all over the chicken, massage evenly and let it stand for 10 minutes. I use a 24 cm cast iron casserole that just fit the chicken. Pour in water and bring it to a boil.  Turn to low heat, carefully place chicken into the casserole for 10 seconds, with the chicken breast facing up. Then turn over the chicken that the chicken breast facing down for 5 seconds. Transfer the chicken into the ice water immediately when it is still hot.  Soak until the chicken cool down and take it out.

 

4. Peel and thinly sliced ginger and cut spring onion into sections. Place half of the spring onion into the chicken cavity.

5. Peel and Dice Shallots and garlic.  Add diced shallots, garlic and water to a blender, blend to juice. Then straining the shallots liquids using a sieve.

6. Heat the cast iron casserole with little oil. Then add the ginger, scallions and peppercorn and cook another 30 seconds. Add water, garlic liquids, rock sugar, Chinese cinnamon and licorice.  Add soy sauce and Rose-flavored Rice Wine after the rock sugar melt. Bring it to simmer and then turn to low heat.  Beware that the heat should be as low as enough to keep little bubbles springing up. Don’t use high heat because the chicken would be over-cooked easily and the meat won’t be smooth and tender otherwise.

7. Carefully place chicken into the casserole, with the chicken breast facing up. Cover with lid, simmer at low heat for about 15 minutes.

8. Over the lid and turn over the chicken with chicken breast facing down for.  Cover the pot again and turn off heat.   We’re going to use the heat inside the casserole and continue to cook the chicken for another 30 to 40 minutes.

9. Test the chicken if it’s cooked through or not. Insert a needle or chopstick into the thickest part, like chicken thigh, if clear liquid runs out without any blood, it’s done.  If it’s not cooked, then heat the sauce for a few minutes more, turn off and cover for 5 ~ 10 minutes more.

10. Transfer chicken to a platter. Discard the spring onion inside the cavity. Cut into bite-sized chunks with a scissors. Ladle hot soy sauce over the chicken. Serve hot.

Tips

• The defrosting time and cooking time depends on how big the chicken is. Practice makes things perfect anyway.