Soy Sauce Chicken 豉油雞 (Drumsticks or Thighs)

I figured that there were enough 豉油雞 out there that I didn’t have to prioritize writing about it. Before COVID-19, I would have preferred to make it with a whole chicken first because it’s overall better when the skin intact on the whole chicken. The skin protects the meat and makes the texture smoother. There’s also some specific techniques with whole chicken that are good to show. But, all things considering, this is an easy way of prepping this with just drumsticks or thighs that are cheap and flavorful cuts in these tough times. If you don’t have too many mouths to feed in your household, this is also more practical to make so you don’t have so many leftovers.

I did a little research on recipes recorded in English and I was a little surprised that the cooking approach my parents make hasn’t been recorded by some of the top 20 or so Google searches on these recipes. My dad first learned this in kitchens and taught this technique to my mom, so he’s had much more experience in this. One interesting thing is that many recipes online take a very long time to cook and while they do a whole chicken, my folks never cook it as long. I used to follow something more similar to what online cooks do over 10 years ago in college just out of far that I’d have under cooked chicken, but really the texture of the skin was never that good.

The big trick is to cook the chicken just short enough so the skin is still springy, but not too soft and tender. If you follow this general way of poaching, you’ll get a better skin texture.

According to my dad, a trick that professionals use in the braising liquid is a little bit of 麦芽糖 maltose. It makes the braising liquid just a little more viscous for a better texture when you drizzle any extra over the cooked chicken. This also gives a subtle glossy and shiny appearance that I think many other English recorded recipes miss. He said that honey can also be used, but you’ll need a little bit more than 麦芽糖 maltose. If you never worked with 麦芽糖 maltose before, it can be annoying for home cooks because at room temperature, it’s stiff like a rock. You need to heat it up up in a water bath to make it pliable and it’s extremely sticky. Honey is more accessible and practical for home cooks.

麦芽糖 maltose or honey in the braising liquid helps give that shiny and glossy look.

The spices vary, but the most common one I always see is star anise. Next to this is ginger. Use what you have so long as it pairs well with chicken. The ones listed are the spices my dad says to use. Getting specific amounts was really hard so they’re more of my notes when I made it this one time. Like super experienced cooks, he doesn’t really think of it in a set measured recipe. Rather he always adjusts on the context of how many you are cooking for.

My dad mentioned that many others add dark soy sauce for coloring, but the version he makes starts off being more soy sauce heavy in the poaching liquid so for this recipe, dark soy sauce is not needed.

The nice thing about the braising liquid is that it can be kept for a while. If you refrigerate it, remove any congealed fat and boil it once a week. But if you use it more than 3-4 times, you’ll need to re-season it with salt, rock sugar, soy sauce, and spices as needed.

RECIPE:

4 chicken drumsticks or thighs
4 cups of water
6 star anise
1 black cardamom
6 slices of licorice root
2 in. of fresh ginger, sliced (you can use about 1 in. in dried galangal pieces if you have this in your pantry)
4 cups light soy sauce
About 2 cups rock sugar, about 400g or more to taste
(If you don’t have rock sugar and only white sugar, use about 1 3/4 cups as this is very close to 400g.)
6 tbsp honey
Salt to taste

Note: You should not make this in a small or shallow pot. Soy sauce braising liquids bubble a lot when it comes to a boil so you risk having it boil over and making a mess that’s hard to clean up. Use a tall or large pot that will have extra space after you put in the poaching liquid and chicken in it.

In a large pot, add the 4 cups of water and star anise, black cardamom, licorice root, and ginger. Bring this to a boil over high heat. Cover and reduce the heat to low to simmer for about 5 minutes to extract some of the spice’s flavor into the water.

Uncover and bring the heat back to a medium-high heat. Add the soy sauce, rock sugar, honey, and salt to taste. You will need some salt because the poaching liquid is a 1:1 soy sauce to water ratio and the soy sauce is already going to be watered down.

Stir to dissolve the rock sugar and taste to adjust the seasoning.

When this is ready, bring the poaching liquid to a boil over medium-high heat.

When the liquid is boiling, add the chicken thighs or drum sticks. Bring this back to a boil and keep an eye on this. As soon as the liquid boils, turn off the heat, cover and set a timer for 10-12 minutes depending on how large the drumsticks or thighs are.

Uncover and flip any drumsticks or thighs so all sides contact and absorb the poaching liquid.

Turn the heat back on to medium-high and bring this back to a boil again keeping an eye on the pot. Like the earlier step, as soon as it comes to a boil, turn off the heat, cover and set a timer for an additional 10-12 minutes depending on how large the drumsticks or thighs are.

If you don’t have a thermometer to tell if it’s done, use a knife and cut into the thickest part of the thickest piece to see if if the flesh is raw looking. It is completely normal for the bone marrow to have a red or pink color, even if you cook dark meat to 165F. If cut through the bone and the marrow is solidly grey-ish in color, then it means the chicken you had was stored in the freezer far too long and it’s no longer fresh anymore. My mom has another general rule of thumb to tell if it’s done. For drumsticks, look at the narrow end. If the skin breaks away from the nub at the end of the drumstick, it means it’s cooked.

Transfer to a plate to cool for about 5 minutes before cutting and serving. Spoon a little bit of extra poaching liquid over the sliced chicken for any people that want more of that sweet soy sauce.

If you are storing any for leftovers, do not leave it soaking in the braising liquid. It will make the meat stiff and too salty.