Mom’s Grilled Soy Sauce Chicken (燒烤豉油雞, Siu1 Haau1 Si6 Jau4 Gai1)

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

The Lunar New Year is fast approaching and one of the traditional dishes to have is a whole chicken. Now when I say whole, I mean with the head and feet attached – otherwise it’s not a whole chicken! Now I didn’t use a whole chicken as it was just defined, but the results are just as tasty. This is based on my Mom’s favorite recipe for Chicken Stuffed with Sticky Rice (糯米鷄, No⁶ Mai⁵ Gai¹). She would roast her chicken in the oven stuffed with Chinese Sticky Rice (糯米飯, No⁶ Mai⁵ Faan⁶), but I chose to use my grill to cook the chicken. I used a chicken stand to cook the chicken in the grill. The stand is also known as a “beer can” chicken stand (although no can was used to cook the chicken) since a beer can fits perfectly into the cavity and supports the chicken upright. The stand I use also has a base that catches the juices, so a gravy can be made.

I made a few other modifications to the chicken marinade, but retained the most important ingredient that made my Mom’s roast chicken flavorful and that ingredient is gin. The only reason I purchase gin is to make this chicken, otherwise the bottle just sits in my cabinet waiting for the next chicken to marinade. If you don’t have gin, you can always substitute Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, but it won’t taste the same.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

6 lb.	3 kg.	Whole chicken (雞, gai1)
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
4 cloves	4 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), crushed in a garlic press
½ cup	120 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Hoisin sauce (海鮮醬, hoi2 sin1 zoeng3)
4 Tbs.	60 ml.	Gin (金酒, gam1 zau2)
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)

 

Equipment

		Garlic press
		Chicken stand (a.k.a. “beer can” chicken stand)
22.5 in.	57 cm.	Covered charcoal or gas grill (or larger)

 



Charcoal Grill Chicken Cooking Setup

Instructions

1. Wash and put the chicken into a large bowl together with the marinade: ginger and garlic crushed in a garlic press, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, gin, ground white pepper, and sesame oil. Marinade the chicken in the refrigerator up to 48 hours, turning the chicken every 24 hours. Take the chicken out of the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking.
2. Prepare the charcoal or gas grill for indirect cooking following the manufacturer’s instructions. Light the charcoal or preheat the gas grill accordingly. If smoking the chicken, soak any wood chunks or chips (cherry) for one hour before cooking if desired. I do not soak and use dry smoking wood.
3. If using a charcoal grill, remove the grill grate (the chicken will be placed on the charcoal grate) and arrange the lighted coals around the edges of the charcoal grate, leaving enough room to cook the standing chicken in the middle of the charcoal grate. For a gas grill, follow the manufacturer’s instructions as to which burners to leave on for indirect cooking. Add the wood chunks or chips for smoking.
4. Carefully place the standing chicken onto the charcoal grate grill. Be careful since the standing chicken is being placed into the middle of a circle of hot coals. Cover the barbeque and let cook for 40-60 minutes.
5. Remove the chicken from the grill and allow to rest for 10 minutes before cutting. Serve with Chinese Sticky Rice (糯米飯, No⁶ Mai⁵ Faan⁶) or steamed rice.

Cutting and Arranging Instructions

See the Poached Chicken (白斬雞, Baak⁶ Zaam² Gai¹) with Ginger-Scallion Oil (薑蔥油, Goeng¹ Cung¹ Jau⁴) recipe for detailed instructions on cutting and arranging a chicken on a platter. The following is an outline of the procedure to cut and arrange the chicken on the serving platter.

1. Separate the wing, drumstick-thigh, backbone, and breast from the chicken.
2. Cut the backbone into pieces and arrange the pieces on the serving platter.
3. Separate the drumstick from thigh and cut into pieces. Put the cut pieces onto the serving platter.
4. Separate the wing into pieces and put the cut pieces onto the serving platter.
5. Cut through the breast bone and separate the breast into breast halves.
6. Cut the breast halves into pieces and place the pieces on top of the drumstick-thigh pieces on the serving platter.