Soy Sauce Chicken (豉油鷄, Si6 Jau4 Gai1)

This recipe was updated on 16 Aug 2015. Some hyperlinks were fixed.

Poaching chicken is an easy and fast way to cook a chicken. While the Poached Chicken (白斬雞, Baak⁶ Zaam² Gai¹) with Ginger-Scallion Oil (薑蔥油, Goeng¹ Cung¹ Jau⁴) recipe uses water to poach the chicken, a soy sauce based solution is used to make this version of poached chicken. Usually dark soy sauce is used to give the chicken its color, but I tried using thick soy sauce (which has molasses) instead and I like the results better. The Poached Chicken (白斬雞, Baak⁶ Zaam² Gai¹) with Ginger-Scallion Oil (薑蔥油, Goeng¹ Cung¹ Jau⁴) recipe has instructions on how to cut and present the chicken. Just be sure you have a good sharp Chinese cleaver and a wood cutting board, and with a little practice, you’ll be able to cut chickens as if you worked in a Chinese delicatessen.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

6 lb.	2.75 kg.	Whole chicken (雞, gai1)
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), lightly crushed
2 cloves	2 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), lightly crushed
1	1	Dried tangerine peel (陳皮, can4 pei4)
1	1	Dried date (蜜棗, mat6 zou2)
2 whole	2 whole	Star anise (八角, baat3 gok3)
1 stick	1 stick	Cassia bark (桂皮, gwai3 pei4) or cinnamon stick
1 piece	1 piece	Rock sugar (冰糖, bing1 tong4)
3 Tbs.	45 ml.	Koon Chun brand thick soy sauce (上珠油, soeng6 zyu1 jau4) or equivalent; dark soy sauce (老抽, lou5 cau1) can also be used
2 cups	500 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
½ cup	125 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
4 cups	1 l.	Water

 

Equipment

8 qt.	7.5 L.	Pot
3.5 in.	9 cm.	Soak-out cooker to hold the spices

 

Koon Chun Brand Thick Soy Sauce
(上珠油, soeng6 zyu1 jau4)

Instructions

1. Put the lightly crushed ginger and garlic, dried tangerine peel, dried date, star anise, cassia bark or cinnamon stick, and rock sugar into the soak-out cooker. Put the soak-out cooker into the pot.
2. Add the water and soy sauce to the pot. If Koon Chun brand thick soy sauce or equivalent is being used, it needs to be incorporated into another liquid, so put the thick soy sauce into a bowl, add the Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, and mix the ingredients together before adding it to the pot. If using dark soy sauce, just add the dark soy sauce and Shaoxing wine or dry sherry directly into the pot. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat uncovered, and then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Prepare the chicken in the meantime.
3. Wash and remove any excess fat from the whole chicken. Gently rub the outside of the chicken to remove any remaining skin. If any skin, which is usually yellow in color, remains on the surface of the chicken, it will prevent the soy sauce solution from penetrating into the surface of the chicken.
4. After the pot has simmered for 15 minutes, turn off the heat, remove the soak-out cooker, and discard the contents. Be very careful since the soak-out cooker will be very hot.
5. Carefully put the chicken, breast side up, into the pot. You want the chicken’s cavity to fill up with the poaching liquid and to displace as much air as possible, otherwise the chicken will float resulting in an uneven colored cooked chicken. Try holding the legs and place the chicken at an angle, butt side down, into the poaching liquid. This should displace the maximum amount of air from the chicken’s cavity. If the chicken is not fully covered by the poaching liquid, add more water to fully submerse the chicken.
6. Turn up the heat to high and as the liquid returns to the boil, skim any fat from the surface. As soon as the poaching liquid begins to boil (when the first bubbles appear), cover the pot, and turn off the heat. Leave the covered pot on the burner for one hour.

   

   Cooked Soy Sauce Chicken (豉油鷄, Si6 Jau4 Gai1)

7. Remove the chicken from the pot and allow to cool for one hour or overnight in the refrigerator. Skim any fat from the liquid remaining in the pot and then save the poaching liquid. The poaching liquid can be used as the basis for any stir fry sauces and can be reused as the base for another poaching liquid.
8. The chicken can be cut and presented using the instructions found in the Poached Chicken (白斬雞, Baak⁶ Zaam² Gai¹) with Ginger-Scallion Oil (薑蔥油, Goeng¹ Cung¹ Jau⁴) recipe.