Soy Sauce Chicken

4.60 from 20 votes

Soy Sauce Chicken - dark and glossy whole chicken dunked in a soy sauce mix. Also try dipping it with the ginger and scallion condiment.

Prep Time30

Cook Time55

Total Time1 25

Course: Chinese Recipes

Cuisine: Chicken

Keyword: Chinese Soy Sauce Chicken

Servings: servings

Calories: 508kcal

Author: Bee Yinn Low

Ingredients

3 chicken leg quarters about 2 lbs (1kg).
2- inch (5cm) ginger skin peeled and lightly pounded
4 cloves garlic lightly pounded
2 stalks scallions cut into 2-inch (5 cm) lengths
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick about 2-inch (5 cm) length
1 dried honey dates optional
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rose wine preferred or [Shaoxing wine]
3 dashes white pepper powder
4 oz (125g) rock sugar
4 cups water

Ginger and Scallion Dip:

1 oz (30g) ginger skin peeled, pounded, and finely chopped
1 scallion cut into thin rounds
1/2 tsp chicken bouillon powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons oil

Instructions

To prepare the ginger and scallion dip, place the ginger, scallions, salt, and chicken bouillon powder into a small bowl. Heat up 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok until it starts to smoke. Pour the oil into the small bowl and blend well. Set aside.
Add all ingredients except the chicken into a deep pot and bring it to boil on high heat for 15 minutes. Add the chicken quarters into the pot and boil over high heat for about 10 minutes. Lower the heat to simmer for about 30 minutes.
Turn off heat and let the chicken steeped in the soy sauce mixture for a few hours to soak in the flavor. Dish out the chicken quarters, chop into pieces and serve immediately with the dipping sauce. Soy sauce chicken is usually served cold or at room temperature.

Notes

Some dark soy sauce is darker than others. I used Kimlan dark soy sauce which is not that dark, so I used 1/2 a cup. If you have a very dark soy sauce, you should probably use less. I had the best Dongbo Rou (东波肉) in a Shanghai restaurant and they used dried honey dates (蜜枣) to make their soy sauce mixture. Dried honey dates impart delicate and natural sweet taste to soups and stews and widely used in Cantonese cuisine. It's optional if you don't have them. Save the soy sauce mix. It's great for soy sauce eggs. Add a few hard-boiled eggs into the soy sauce mix and steep them overnight and you have some great tasting Chinese soy sauce eggs (滷蛋). You can also use the soy sauce mixture to make soy sauce tofu (滷水豆腐); deep fry the tofu and soak it with the soy sauce before serving.

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