鹵水雞翼 Lou Seui (NOT master stock) Chicken Wings

鹵水 lou seui seems to be deeply misunderstood in the US. There’s already very little information about this in English, but these days it’s frequently mistranslated as “master stock”. There’s really nothing about the name 鹵水 that refers to it being a “master” in any interpretation of any kind of stock. It appears that the earlier forms of this mistranslation uses the term sauce and eventually got replaced with stock. One of the earliest I could find was in the Washington Post back in 1981 which called it LOOO SAUCE and comes with some old timey orientalist racism. Other early instances on the internet that came up was this post on Everything2 and of course on eGullet during the aughts of the early food bloggers.

After digging around, I’m still not entirely sure where the mistranslation of “master” comes from. My guess is a made up term was needed in place of just trying to learn the Chinese name. After all, there’s no cooking technique like 鹵水 that’s found in America or Europe. It’s not hard to say, just stick to Mandarin or choose one dialect of Cantonese to say it in. By trying to give it a non-Chinese name, you’re already starting off from a perspective with an incomplete and incorrect idea of the dish in the first place.

鹵水 can be used for a lot of different meat and I’m most familiar are whole ducks. But you can also poach chicken wings, pork or beef tongues (my dad’s favorite), pig ears, firm tofu, duck tongues, etc in them. The spices used can vary a lot from cooks, but there is a distinct quality to the end product that you know you are eating something braised in 鹵水. Most commonly, it’s bought at any place that specializes in 燒味 siu mei.

There’s a white version that’s made without soy sauce that’s called 白鹵水 baak lou seui, for braising chicken in a way that’s similar to Hainanese chicken or 白切雞 baak chit gai white cut chicken. And don’t forget a beloved Taiwanese favorite, 鹵肉飯 lou yuk fan. The Taiwanese comfort dish follows a very similar method of preparation of 鹵水, but generally using much less water, less soy sauce, and less sugar. In the end the braising liquid is reduced into a thickened sauce to be served with braised pork on rice.

Besides being delicious, the cool thing is that this dish can be immortal. Once the 鹵水 is used it can be cooled and stored in the fridge or freezer for the next use. If it’s stored in the fridge with infrequent use, it should be taken out to be boiled to kill off any bacteria about once a week. For restaurants, my parents have seen it regularly skimmed of fat at the end of each day before it’s stored in the fridge. At the quantity that a restaurant would poach, a considerable amount of fat would be rendered and this would be at risk of going rancid if you kept it around too long. Periodically, more spices would need to be added to keep it going but most times, you only need to replenish the flavor by adding more salt and maybe sugar. Most importantly of course, is to taste it. Over time, the 鹵水 will build a rich stock that becomes part of it. Some restaurants in China have their 鹵水 going continuously for over 100 years already.

But here’s a recipe my parents have taught me to get started on it. You don’t have to use chicken wings, but that’s what I chose at the time I recorded this recipe.

Recipe:
2 + 6 slices of ginger
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 green onions
Neutral oil
10-12 star anise, crushed
2 black cardamom, crushed
2 small pieces of aged tangerine peel
8-10 Sichuan peppercorn, green preferably (it’s more fragrant than red)
6 cloves
4 slices of dried licorice root
2 pieces of cinnamon
6 c of water
1 3/4 c of light soy sauce
2 tsp dark soy sauce
Roughly 4 tbsp of rock sugar (or about 115 g)
Salt, optional
2 lbs chicken wings

To start, in a large pot bring to a large pot of water to a boil with 2 slices of ginger. When this comes to a boil, add the chicken wings and let the water return to a boil. Boil for 1 minute to remove some blood from the exposed bone. Discard boiling water and immediately run cold water to stop the cooking and rinse out any blood. Set wings aside.

While this first pot is coming to a boil, you can prepare the 鹵水 from scratch. Over medium heat, when the pot is hot, add some neutral oil and stir fry the 6 slices of ginger, garlic and green onions until fragrant. Then add the water and bring it to a boil.

Once the 鹵水 water is a boil, add the spices and reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes to steep the flavors of the spices. Once the spices have been steeped, add the light and dark soy sauces, sugar, and maybe any salt if it is needed. Bring the heat to medium while this is happening to help melt the rock sugar. Salty, sweet, and spices are what you should taste. You need more sugar, if you taste a slight acidic/tannic flavor. My dad pointed this out as tasting and it’s true for watered down soy sauce that’s too salty and unbalanced. Once the taste is adjusted and it’s good, your 鹵水 is ready.

Bring your 鹵水 to a boil over high heat, uncovered (once soy sauce is added, 鹵水 can easily boil over) and once it boils, add the chicken wings. The liquid should drop out of a boil, but keep it on high heat until the liquid boils again. Once it boils after the wings are added, immediately cover it and shut off the heat and set a timer for 10 minutes. Uncover and bring the 鹵水 back to a boil once more and like before, once it reaches the boil, immediately cover and shut off the heat. Set a timer for another 10 minutes.

After 20 minutes of this poaching, the wings will be great. Gently take them out with tongs and serve.

As for the 鹵水, leave the rest of the spices in the liquid. No need to strain. Once it is cooled, transfer it to a glass jar and keep it in the fridge to be used again or frozen in a freezer safe container. If you keep using it, just boil it once a week if it’s kept in the fridge and to remove any fat to prevent it from going rancid. Add more salt if needed at first and later on replenish it with more spices, salt, and sugar as needed.