Red-cooked chicken
Instructions:
- Simmering food in liquid that includes a large proportion of dark soy sauce is known as ‘red cooking’ because of the rich colour the food acquires. A bonus is the resulting sauce, known as a ‘master sauce’, that may be used over and over again. Refrigerate or freeze the sauce between times in small amounts, ready to add whenever a dish needs a lift.
- 1×1.5 kg (3 lb) roasting chicken;
- 375 ml (12 fl oz/1½ cups) dark soy sauce;
- 375 ml (12 fl oz/1½ cups) water;
- 125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) Chinese rice wine or dry sherry;
- 1 knob ginger, sliced;
- 2 star anise;
- 2 cloves garlic;
- 2 tablespoons rock sugar;
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil.
- Rinse the chicken in cold water. Cut off the tail and the two glands either side of it. Remove and discard the fat from the cavity. Choose a saucepan just large enough to hold the chicken so it will be almost covered with the cooking liquid. Place the chicken in the pan, breast down, and add all the ingredients except the sesame oil. On gentle heat, bring the liquid to a simmer. Cover and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, then use tongs to turn the chicken over without piercing the skin. Replace the lid and simmer for a further 15 minutes, basting with liquid every 5 minutes.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and leave the chicken in the covered pan for 40 minutes to finish cooking. Lift the chicken onto a chopping board, letting the liquid in the cavity drain back into the pan. Brush the chicken with sesame oil and either carve into joints or cut in half lengthways and chop into pieces through the bone. Assemble the chicken on a serving plate. Serve with some of the cooking liquid as a dipping sauce.
- Refrigerate or freeze the remaining liquid. Use for red-cooking other foods and notice how the flavour intensifies each time it is used. Serve with plain steamed rice.