June 24, 2012

Soy sauce chicken

I remember a small, family-run Chinese grocery store that my family used to always go to when I was a child.  In addition to the standard Chinese groceries, the owner also had a section that sold Chinese barbecue items.  My favorite items were curry squid (咖哩魷魚), barbecue pork (叉燒), and soy sauce chicken (豉油雞).  The owners have long since retired, the store has changed ownership and design, and it no longer houses a barbecue section.  To this day, I reminisce about the flavor of their curry squid, and I have not been able to find a recipe or other store that can recreate this taste that I fondly remember.  So often our memories set such high standards for how dishes ought to taste.

Soy sauce chicken is classic Chinese home-cooking.  The chicken is cooked slowly over indirect heat by sitting in a cooked marinade, and as such, retains its tender succulence.    I've tried a variety of recipes, and the following is the one that I enjoy the most.  The recipe is adapted from Annie Leong's (梁許安璞) "At Home with Annie" (安璞.滋味.知).  Annie's version includes an additional step of smoking () the chicken over rice, sugar, and dried rose buds, which I don't normally do. 
 

The name of this dish is misleading because soy sauce is not the sole ingredient used in the marinade.  The base of this marinade is a ready-to-use, bottled chicken marinade developed specifically for soy sauce chicken, and the depth of flavour is further developed with the addition of light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, rock sugar, two different types of Chinese cooking wine, shallots, ginger, and scallions. The great thing about this marinade is that it can be reused again and again (and kept in the freezer in between uses).  With each time that it the marinade is used, it becomes more flavourful and more concentrated.  


Soy Sauce Chicken (豉油雞)

Ingredients
1 whole chicken (3.5-4lb) or chicken pieces (eg. drumsticks, thighs, or wings)
3 bottles Lee Kee Kum chicken marinade (李錦記豉油雞汁)
1 tsp Chinese "rose" wine (玫瑰露酒, Chinese salted wine made with rose flowers)
4 tbsp Shaoxing wine (紹興酒, Chinese rice wine)
3 tbsp light soy sauce (生抽)
1 tbsp dark soy sauce (老抽)
2 tbsp oyster sauce (蠔油)
3 pieces of rock sugar (冰糖), about the size of pinballs each
6-8 shallots, peeled and smashed with the size of a knife
1 large slice of ginger
1 bundle of scallions, ends trimmed and cut into 3" sections
Oil

1) In a medium-sized pot, heat a bit of oil and sautee the aromatics (shallots, ginger, and scallions) until fragrant.  Add Shaoxing wine.
2) Add all other marinade ingredients to the pot, and mix well. 
3) Add chicken to the marinade, and bring the mixture to a boil uncovered.
4) Once the mixture is heating, cover and turn the heat down to medium.  Simmer for 5 minutes and then turn off the heat.
5) Let chicken cook in the hot marinade, covered, for 1 hour.  Turn the chicken every 20 minutes to allow for even cooking.
6) Remove the chicken or chicken pieces from the marinade.  If using a whole chicken, use kitchen shears to cut the chicken into pieces.
7) Allow marinade to cool, transfer to freezer-safe containers, and keep in freezer.

Note: The next time you want to make this dish, defrost the frozen marinade in the fridge overnight.  The marinade will be of a gelatinous consistency, but will completely melt and thin out upon cooking again.  Prior to using the marinade, skim off any visible fat from the top with a spoon.  Pour the marinade into a medium-sized pot, add the chicken, and follow the same cooking technique as above.    

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