The fifth dish of our Top 8 Chinese New Year Dishes series is a classic Cantonese favourite that you can enjoy any day of the year too. Here is home cook Quek Seok Bin’s recipe for Soy Sauce Chicken (豉油鸡 si yau kai)!
During CNY, a whole chicken dish symbolises unity and prosperity for the family. Hence, there are a plethora of interesting chicken recipes available such as salt-baked chicken, herbal emperor chicken, even poached chicken with abalones.
But if you want a quick and easy recipe that is also extremely delicious, this easy, one-pot Soy Sauce Chicken recipe is perfect for CNY as it can be prepared under an hour!
Soy Sauce Chicken
Some recipes call for the chicken to be marinated so to infuse more flavour into the meat. But with Kwong Cheong Thye’s Dark Soya Sauce Superior, you can skip the marinating time without compromising the flavour.
The dark soya sauce has a fragrant and thick texture that gives the braising sauce great flavour and a lovely reddish-brown colour. Top of the line and best used for braising dishes, the chicken still tastes as though it has been marinated overnight!
Hence, we highly recommend that you have this dish with some rice or noodles as you wouldn’t want to miss any drop of the delicious sauce too.
Kwong Cheong Thye’s Dark Soya Sauce Superior
Here are the ingredients that you need: whole chicken, light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, water, garlic, ginger, dried rose buds/rose wine, rock sugar, spring onions, and cornstarch.
To begin, prepare the braising sauce for the chicken by adding all the ingredients, except the chicken and cornstarch, into a large pot and bring them to a boil.
Prepare and boil the braising sauce
Place the chicken into the pot once the sauce has boiled. Submerge the chicken by adding the remaining 4 cups of water. You may add more water if needed.
#Tip: if you added more water to submerge the chicken, remember to do a taste test and adjust the seasoning after simmering the chicken.
Carefully place the chicken into the pot
Add the last 4 cups of water or enough water to submerge the chicken
Bring the sauce to a boil again then cover the pot with a lid. Lower the heat and let the pot simmer for 20 minutes.
Bring the sauce to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes
Once 20 minutes are up, remove the chicken from the pot. You can test for the cook of the chicken with a meat thermometer or by cutting into the breast.
Let the chicken cool down a little, then cut it up into pieces and arrange them on a plate to serve.
Remove the chicken and cut it up
Next, make the sauce for the chicken.
Pour two ladleful of braising sauce onto a saucepan and pour in some cornstarch. Stir to mix well with a spatula until the sauce has thickened then remove the sauce from the heat.
Add two ladle full of sauce onto a frying pan
Add the cornflour and stir to mix well
Once sauce has thickened, remove from heat.
Lastly, serve the chicken and drizzle the sauce over the chicken.
#Tip: braise some tau gua and hard-boiled eggs in the remaining sauce as side dishes! You can also keep the sauce in the fridge overnight to cook more ingredients the next day. And it will taste better too!
Drizzle the sauce over the chicken and serve!
Get the recipe here!
- 1 kg whole chicken
- 2 1/4 cups light soya sauce
- 1 1/3 cups KCT Dark Soya Sauce Superior
- 12 cups water
- 10 cloves garlic skin on
- 4 slices ginger
- 16 dry rose buds
- 3 tbsp rock sugar
- 3 stalks spring onion
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- Add garlic, ginger, rose buds, rock sugar, spring onions, light and dark soya sauce, and 8 cups of water into a pot and bring it to a boil for 10 minutes.
- Gently place chicken into pot and add the remaining 4 cups of water or as needed to fully submerge the chicken in the sauce.
- Once the sauce boils again, cover the pot, lower the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes. #Tip: if you added more water to submerge the chicken, remember to do a taste test and adjust the seasoning after simmering the chicken.
- Turn off the heat and remove the chicken from the pot. Let if cool off a little before chopping into pieces for serving. Set aside on a serving plate.
- Scoop 2 ladles of sauce into a small sauce pan and heat it up. Once the sauce boils, thicken the sauce with cornstarch to form a thick gravy. Remove gravy from heat and drizzle over chopped chicken.
- #Tip: use the remaining sauce to braise tau gua and hard boiled eggs for 15 minutes as additional sides. You can also keep the remaining sauce int the fridge to cook for the next day.
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