Chinese Soy Sauce Chicken
Chinese Soy Sauce Chicken is a Hong Kong style Cantonese cuisine made by braising in aromatic soy sauce with seasonings and spices.
- Prep time
- 30 min
- Cook time
- 30 min
- Yield
- 8 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1.8 kg whole free range chicken (fat trimmed)
- 3 bunches bok choy (washed and cut into halves)
- Steamed basmati rice (to serve)
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup sesame oil
- 1⅔ cup gluten free kecap manis
- 3 large star anise
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 5 cloves
- 1 cup medium dry sherry
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 5 cups water
- 300 g fresh ginger (peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces)
- 6 spring onions ((shallots) sliced into 1 inch lengthwise)
- 3 sprigs coriander (including stems, roughly tear into 2 cm (0.8 inch) lengthwise)
Instructions
- 1
Blend ginger and spring onion (shallots) into the food processor until you get a rough paste. Set aside 3 tablespoons for marinating the chicken. Reserve the rest of the paste for braising the chicken.
- 2
Clean and wash the chicken, fat trimmed from under skin near the top and bottom of cavity. Then rub the chicken skin and cavity with 3 tablespoons of the ginger and spring onion (shallots) paste set aside in step 1 above.
- 3
Mix all the ingredients for the braising sauce together in a small bowl except the water.
- 4
Using a large stock pot that will just fit a whole chicken, add in the braising sauce and the rest of the ginger and spring onion (shallots) paste and bring to a boil.
- 5
Then submerge the whole chicken with breast side down into the pot followed by adding 5 cups of water and bring to a boil again. Once its boiling, turn the heat down to low, cover with lid and simmer for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken over once or twice and ensure that it cooks for the same amount of time on both sides. Turn off the heat.
- 6
Let the chicken rest in the pot for another 10 minutes.
- 7
Cautiously remove the chicken and place on a plate to rest and cool.
- 8
Reserve 1½ cup of the braising sauce by pouring the sauce through a fine sieve into a measuring cup.
- 9
Heat up a medium pot half filled with water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and briefly blanch the bok choy together with the extra virgin olive oil for 1 minute or until the bok choy turns bright green in colour.
- 10
Add the cooked bok choy to a serving plate.
- 11
Cut the chicken into quarters and remove the chicken meat from the bones carefully. Next, cut the boneless chicken quarters into bite size pieces.
- 12
Place the boneless chicken pieces on top of the bok choy on the serving plate. Drizzle some of the reserved braising sauce onto the chicken pieces and garnish with coriander.
- 13
Serve the chicken with steamed basmati rice.