Soy Sauce Chicken (See Yao Gai/豉油鸡)

A simplified version without compromising on flavour

Instead of cooking a whole chicken, this recipe uses chicken thighs (other cuts except breast work too) to make the cooking process more approachable and less labour-intensive. To prepare a whole chicken the traditional way, you would need to baste it with the cooking liquid every few minutes to ensure an even flavouring and colouring of the skin.

Since cut chicken pieces can be easily submerged in the broth and flipped over when necessary, they require much less skill and attention to prepare. It’s surely a short-cut of a classic dish, but I promise the flavour is very satisfying!

The Ingredient List & Substitutes

Chicken thigh or other flavourful cuts

Any cuts of dark meat of a chicken would work well for this recipe. That is to say, thighs (what I cooked for shooting), wings, drum sticks, legs or leg quarters. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend chicken breast as it’s a bit dry and less flavoursome.

The quantity of ingredients in my recipe is for cooking 6 chicken thighs (skin on & bone in) which weigh about 1kg/2.2lb. Adjust the volume if necessary. In the next section on cooking steps, I will talk about different cooking time for various cuts.

Light soy sauce & dark soy sauce

Obviously, soy sauce is the essential ingredient for this dish. It lends the chicken a savoury, fragrant and umami taste, as well as an appetizing brown colour. Apart from light soy sauce (Sheng Chou/生抽), I also like adding a little dark soy sauce (Lao Chou/老抽) which provides a hint of caramelised taste and is brilliant at browning food. It’s nice to use the combination of these two types, but please feel free to skip the dark version if unavailable.

You might have soy sauce that’s not labelled as light or dark (for example the popular Japanese brand Kikkoman). In this case, just use the same amount as suggested for light soy sauce in the recipe.

Rice wine & Sugar

The traditional recipe for soy sauce chicken calls for Chinese rose wine (Mei Gui Lu Jiu/玫瑰露酒), a type of rose-flavoured sorghum liquor commonly used in Cantonese cuisine, and rock sugar. In my recipe, I list Shaoxing rice wine and dark brown sugar instead as they are more accessible and the difference in flavour is subtle (If you wish to make the dish alcohol-free, simply omit the wine).

Aromatics & Spices

Like many other Chinese braising dishes (think Braised Pork Belly, Three Cup Chicken), tasty soy sauce chicken also benefits from aromatics like scallion and ginger, as well as some spices. Please don’t hesitate to add more spices, other than star anise and bay leaves listed in the recipe, if you have them at hand, such as cassia cinnamon (Chinese cinnamon), cloves, Tsao-ko, etc.

Two Simple Cooking Steps

Cooking soy sauce chicken is very simple, especially when you cook chicken pieces instead of a whole chicken. It doesn’t involve any advanced cooking skills so it’s a great dish to start if you’re new to Chinese cuisine. Now let me walk you through each procedure in detail.

Step 1: Prepare the braising liquid

Choose a wok/pot which is big enough to lay the chicken pieces in a single layer but not so big that you need an extra-large volume of braising liquid. The first step is to fry the aromatics and spices in a little oil. Keep the heat on low to fully release their aroma without burning.

Once you smell the fragrance and see the scallions and ginger turning light brown, pour in light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice wine, sugar and water. Then turn up the heat to bring the liquid to a full boil.

Step 2: Simmer the chicken

Now gently slide in the chicken thighs with the skin side down. You might need to adjust the water volume at this point. The liquid should cover at least two-thirds of the chicken.Once the bracing liquid comes back to a boil, turn the heat down to a gentle simmer. Cover with a lid and leave to cook for 35 mins. Then flip over all the thighs and cook for a further 10 mins. That’s all done!

The same method applies to other cuts of chicken but you need to adjust the cooking time accordingly. Here is a general guidance: 25 mins for wings; 35 mins for drumsticks; 45-50 mins for legs or leg quarters.

If uncertain, you can test by poking the thickest part with a chopstick. It should be able to go through without much resistance. A kitchen thermometer would help too. The temperature inside the thickest part should be no lower than 74°C/165°F.

Reuse the Cooking Liquid

Love this soy sauce chicken dish and want to make it again? Then save the leftover cooking liquid which has absorbed great flavour from the chicken. Pour it into a clean jar/container through a sieve (Discard the scallions, ginger and spices). You can reuse it within 4 days if kept in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.

Like the Chinese Beef Master Stock I’ve shared previous, this cooking liquid can be reused indefinitely as long as you’re hygiene-cautious at each step. Its flavour will get richer and more complex over time. Please feel free to add more seasoning and spices if necessary.

Apart from using it to braise chicken (or other meat), there are other ways to enjoy it. For example, dilute it with water to make a delicious noodle soup broth; use it as a seasoning for Cantonese Steamed Fish, add a little to stir-fries as a flavour enhancer, or mix it into Dumpling Fillings.