Quick & Easy Chinese (14 page)
Read Quick & Easy Chinese Online
Authors: Nancie McDermott
The marinade for this dish imbues the chicken with an inviting brown hue and a luscious sweet-and-salty flavor. Chicken legs and thighs come out particularly well when cooked this way, but you could also do a whole chicken cut up, or two game hens instead. This dish tastes wonderful right away, and makes a perfect picnic lunch the day after.
1
/
3
cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons dry sherry or Shaoxing rice wine
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon five-spice powder (see page 14)
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
3 pounds chicken legs and thighs, or one whole chicken cut up
SERVES
4
TO
6
In a large bowl, combine the soy sauce, vegetable oil, sherry, garlic, ginger, five-spice powder, sugar, and salt, and stir to mix everything well and dissolve the sugar and salt.
Add the chicken pieces and turn to coat them evenly. Cover and set aside for 1 hour or as long as overnight.
To cook the chicken, heat the oven to 375°F. Arrange the chicken pieces on the rack of a roasting pan, or simply place them on a baking sheet with sides to catch the juices. Cook 25 minutes, and then remove from the oven to turn each piece over.
Continue cooking until the chicken is wonderfully and evenly brown and cooked through, about 45 minutes total.
Transfer to a serving platter and let rest for 10 minutes. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.
We adore this deeply flavored and colored braise with chicken thighs and legs, but you could use any combination of chicken pieces, bone in and skin on for maximum flavor and gorgeous hue. Probably called red-cooked because red is an auspicious color in Chinese tradition, the finished dish is in fact a handsome mahogany, in vivid contrast to the light-colored interior meat that’s visible when you cut into a piece of red-cooked chicken. You need only brown the chicken pieces and assemble the braising ingredients to get this dish cooking. Once it is bubbling away on the stove, simply enjoy the aromas and cook some rice or noodles with which to enjoy the fabulous sauce.
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
5 green onions, trimmed and cut crosswise into thirds
5 slices fresh ginger
2 pounds chicken thighs or legs, or both
½ cup dark soy sauce
½ cup dry sherry or Shaoxing rice wine
1
/
3
cup Chinese-style rock sugar (see page 16) or brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 star anise or 1 teaspoon five-spice powder (optional; see page 14)
SERVES
4
NOTE
You can make a tasty version with brown sugar, but rock sugar from a Chinese market is an extraordinary plus to the flavor of this dish. It keeps indefinitely, so stocking up at an Asian store or ordering a box or two via mail (see page 186) is worth a little time if you love this dish. You also need dark soy sauce, which can be bought and kept indefinitely, for color as well as flavor. If you don’t have dark soy sauce, you can make a good version with
1
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3
cup soy sauce and 3 tablespoons molasses in its place
.
Heat a large, deep skillet or a wok over medium-high heat. Add the vegetable oil and heat until a bit of green onion sizzles at once when tossed into the oil. Add the ginger slices and green onion and cook, tossing occasionally, until they release their fragrance and the green onion wilts, about 3 minutes.
Scoop out and transfer the ginger and green onion to a large saucepan. Add several chicken pieces to the skillet without crowding the pan. Let them cook undisturbed until golden brown on one side, about 3 minutes. Turn to cook the other side, and then transfer to the pot, placing them on top of the green onion and ginger. Brown the remaining chicken pieces, then transfer with the cooking oil left in the skillet to the saucepan.
Add the dark soy sauce, sherry, rock sugar, salt, and star anise, if using, to the saucepan, and stir gently to mix them a little. Bring to a gentle, lively boil over medium-high heat, and then adjust the heat to maintain a gentle boil. The sauce should be moving visibly, but not bubbling noisily.
Stir to dissolve the rock sugar and salt, and continue cooking, uncovered, stirring once or twice, for 1 hour, until the chicken is tender, cooked through, and tinged a gorgeous brown all over. Remove from the heat and set aside, so that the chicken can cool completely in the braising liquid. You can serve it after a 10-minute rest, transferring the chicken to a serving plate and providing a small bowl of the braising sauce on the side to enjoy on the chicken or over rice. Serve hot, warm, or cold, with the chicken whole or sliced.
To serve later, let the chicken and sauce cool completely, and then cover and refrigerate the chicken in the braising liquid for up to 3 days. Reheat very gently in the braising liquid, heating it through without further cooking.