← Nouns Cooking · Chinese

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (about 1.6 kg), at room temperature
• 250 ml light soy sauce
• 4 tbsp Dark soy sauce
• 120 ml Shaoxing wine
• 100 g rock sugar or brown sugar
• 1 l Water
• 5 slices Ginger
• 4 Spring onion, halved
• 3 Star anise
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 2 Bay leaves (optional)
• 1 tbsp Toasted sesame oil

Method

1. Put everything except the chicken and sesame oil into a pot just big enough to hold the bird. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 min so the spices infuse and the sugar dissolves.
2. Lower in the chicken, breast-side down, and ladle the sauce into the cavity. Bring back to a bare simmer, cover and cook on low for 20 min, ladling the sauce over the top now and then.
3. Carefully turn the chicken over and cook for 15 min more, still at a gentle simmer.
4. Turn off the heat and leave the chicken in the covered pot for 15 min to finish cooking. Check the thickest part of the thigh reaches 75°C (165°F).
5. Lift the chicken out, brush with sesame oil and rest for 10 min before chopping into pieces. Boil a ladle of the sauce until slightly syrupy and spoon it over to serve, with rice and greens.

Tips

• Strain and freeze the leftover braising liquid: this “master sauce” gets better every time you reuse it.
• Use a pot the chicken fits snugly in, so the sauce covers as much of it as possible.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Omnivore's Cookbook Made With Lau Christine's Recipes