Soy braised chicken (豉油雞)

(serves 4)

Adapted from Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking

This is an easy home version of the standard soy chicken that you see hanging at the Chinese BBQ store, alongside the delicious duck and BBQ pork (char-siu). Not a conventional Chinese New Year dish as there's no fancy name to make a pun out of, but nonetheless a delicious favourite of many! Easy to make for a big group, or make a batch and eat over a few meals with rice, noodles or even in a salad. After you make the sauce once, you can also drain, cool and then store the sauce in the freezer to use a few more times to get your value for money! True Asian style :)

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes + 1 to 2 hours of soaking

Ingredients
2 kg chicken Maryland (3-4 pieces)

Stock ingredients
1.5 cups Shao xing (Chinese cooking) wine
1 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 cup light soy sauce
2.5 litres water
1 cup (150g) brown sugar
8 garlic cloves
1/2 cup (70g) ginger (peeled and cut into chunks)
4 spring onions
1/2 tsp sesame oil
5 star anise
4 cinnamon quills
7 strips of orange zest (one orange)

Method
1. Place all the stock ingredients into a large pot and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.

2. Clean the chicken of any innards and obvious fat. Pat dry then sprinkle with salt.
3. Pan fry the chicken on medium heat for 5 minutes to brown the skin, then flip and cook for another 3 minutes. 
NB. This isn't conventionally done if you're doing a whole chicken, but I think it adds that nice seared flavour to the skin - which is the best bit of course!
4. Bring the stock back up to the boil then lower the chicken in. Bring the stock back to the boil and cook for 5 minutes then turn off the heat and allow it to poach for at least one hour (ideally 2 hours).

5. Serve with rice and Asian greens (e.g. stir-fry bok choy or blanched gai lan), or any steamed vegetables.