Monday, August 01, 2011

Soy Sauce Chicken/See Yau Kai

I prepared this dish when Diana came home over the weekend. Beside soy sauce chicken I made roast pork/siew yoke too. This is a full- fledged Chinese meal for us. This is something we can easily get from the Chinese restaurant in Chinatown but I prefer to prepare this at home. If you are not a fan of whole chicken you can always use this same sauce for chicken thigh, drumsticks or chicken wings.

Ingredients:
Source: My Kitchen Snippets

1 whole chicken – about 2 – 2.5 pounds
4-6 hard boiled eggs - peeled


Sauce:

2 cups low sodium light sauce
¼ cup dark caramel soy sauce
¼ cup Chinese cooking wine
2 cups water
3 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2” piece ginger – sliced
4 cloves garlic – peel and smashed
4 green onions – cut into 3” length
1/2 cup rock sugar
1/2 tsp 5 spices powder


1. Clean and remove fats from the chicken. Pat it dry.
2. In a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, combine all the sauce ingredients together. Cover, and simmer on medium-low heat for 15 minutes until it is fragrant.
3. Slowly put in the chicken, and let it simmer for 15 minutes, then flip the chicken over to the other side and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes. Flip the chicken over for the second time and let it simmer for 10 min and do the same for the other side.
4. Add in the hard boil eggs and turn off the heat. Cover the lid and let the chicken soak in sauce for another 20 minutes.
5. Remove the chicken and let it cool down a bit before cutting them into bite size pieces. Cut the eggs into halve. Drizzle some of the sauce over the chicken and serve with warm rice.

Note: Many Chinese home will have a tub of this sauce in the freezer, and re-use it each time they want to make soy sauce chicken. This sauce will get better, more flavorful with times. If you want to preserve this sauce all you have to do is strain the balance sauce, freeze it and when it is time to use all you have to do is add in the fresh aromatic to this base sauce.

I am entering this post in the Muhibbah Malaysian Monday roundup, created and hosted by Sharon of Test with a Skewer and Suresh of 3 Hungry Tummies.

17 comments:

Honey Bee Sweets said...

I have seem this recipe appearing on the blog sphere many times but have yet to try it. Yours definitely look very tender and flavorful, yum! Thanks for recipe Gert!

Cuisine Paradise said...

I love soya chicken esp with extra beancurd and hardboiled egg hehehe and yours sure look good. 2 bowls of rice pls... :)

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

I like to cook this too, simple and yet delicious! my kids can have a lot rice to go with this, YUM!

Shereen said...

Gert,
I've done this chicken with sauce before but with slightly different ingredients...must try yours next.I like to add beancurd, tofu, egg, chinese mushroom and taufu pok on the round...very flavoursome.

Chasing Food Dreams said...

Definately comfort food at its best! I m also ogling at the eggs... did I hear Roast pork too? ;)

hanushi said...

Really looks great!!! Thanks for sharing!

lena said...

hi gert, i just cooked this last week. Yours look very good! i also had some sauce leftover and braised that again with pork belly the next day.

ann low said...

I love soy sauce chicken too. Always used the whole chicken for the first time and chill the sauce for the 2nd and 3rd time for chicken thigh or wing.

Pete said...

Looks good and yummy! Love the aroma of soya sauce in the chicken!

Quay Po Cooks said...

Hi Gert, this can be a one dish meal with some plain fragrant white rice. I love the hard boil eggs in this dish. My mum put 1 star anise and it really add a new dimension of flavor to this dish. Love it.

QembarDelites said...

I heard some people keep re-using the sauce for years, that's pretty amazing isn't it? Definitely looks delicious!

My Little Space said...

I love this chicken with nasi minyak. Hmmm...mmm... you've just tempted me. YUmmm...
Kristy

ICook4Fun said...

Bee bee, you are welcome.

Ellena, yes you can eat a lot of rice with this dish :)

Sonia, yea this is a simple easy dish to cook and everyone loves it.

Shereen, I tak ada taufu in hand so I just put eggs. As for the Chinese mushroom I am not a fan of it so tak taruk :)

Jenn, yes it is. I made roast pork too :)

Hanushi, thank you.

Lena, I have 2 containers of sauce in the freezer and I will used it whenever I make this.

ICook4Fun said...

Ann, I prefer whole chicken too.

Pete, yes they are good.

Quay Po, yes star anise give a very nice fragrant to the dish.

None, there is a restaurant here in NY told us their sauce is over 30 years old :)

Kristy, never had it with Nasi minyak. I have to try that :)

mycookinghut said...

I will never say no to soya sauce chicken! :)

Tammy said...

hi, i tried this recipe and everyone gave a thumbs up! thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Hi! What can you substitute for Dark caramel soy sauce? We cannot find that kind of soy sauce here. Thanks!