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Food & Wine Recipe

Soy Sauce Chicken

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  • ACTIVE:
  • TOTAL TIME:
  • SERVINGS: 6
  • HEALTHY

This is a festive chicken dish, one that was always made for the birthday of Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's Ah Paw (grandmother). Here she substitutes chicken breasts for the more traditional whole chicken. The flavorful poaching liquid can be refrigerated and reus...

  1. 4 cups chicken stock
  2. Three 3-inch-long cinnamon sticks
  3. 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  4. 4 star anise pods
  5. One 2-inch piece ginger, smashed
  6. 1/4 cup mushroom soy sauce
  7. 1/4 cup Shao-Hsing wine or dry sherry
  8. 2 whole chicken breasts on the bone with the skin (2 1/2 pounds)
  1. In a large nonreactive saucepan, combine the chicken stock, cinnamon sticks, brown sugar, star anise and ginger and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the mushroom soy and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to moderate and simmer for 20 minutes.;
  2. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Add the chicken breasts, skin side down, and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 12 minutes. Turn the chicken, cover and cook for 12 minutes longer. Remove from the heat and let the chicken stand, covered, for 1 hour.
  3. Remove the chicken from the liquid. Remove and discard the skin and bones. Slice the breasts crosswise 1 1/2 inches thick and serve.

Suggested Pairing

A fruity but dry Gewürztraminer, such as Bouchaine from California or Henry Estate from Oregon, would play off the aromatic elements in the poaching liquid.