New Version Soy Sauce Chicken
Soy Sauce Chicken is a classic dish with a well-known preparation method: clean a whole free-range chicken, blanch it, then simmer in homemade soy sauce broth until tender. Remove, slice, and serve.
Having perfected this dish, I've distilled two key techniques to share:
Tip 1: Double Blanching and Double Chilling
Traditional methods involve placing blanched chickens directly into soy sauce broth. While this yields tender skin, it lacks crispness. My refined approach is:
Select a clean three-yellow chicken (net weight 1.1–1.2 kg) and wash thoroughly. Fill a pot with ample water and bring to a rolling boil. Grasp the chicken by the neck and briefly dip it into the boiling water for 3–4 seconds. Immediately lift it out and submerge it in ice water for about 1 minute. Repeat the process: dip the chicken into boiling water for another 3–4 seconds, then transfer it back to the ice water. This process yields crispy, refreshing skin with enhanced texture.
Tip 2: Healthier Modified Soy Sauce Glaze
Traditional glaze preparation involves simmering soy sauce with spices and copious rock sugar. From a modern dietary perspective, excessive sugar is detrimental. Therefore, I modified the glaze recipe by substituting rock sugar with luo han guo (monk fruit).
Luo Han Guo is rich in vitamin C, glycosides, fructose, glucose, proteins, and lipids. It has the benefits of clearing heat, moistening the lungs, relieving coughs, soothing the throat, and promoting bowel movements, making it highly beneficial for the body.
Improved Soy Sauce Broth:
1. Take 30 Luo Han Guo, 50g red yeast rice, 25g each of bay leaves and star anise, 35g cinnamon bark, and 5 cardamom pods. Wash all ingredients, place in a pot, add 5kg water, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low heat and simmer for 1.5 hours. At this point, approximately 3.7kg of broth should remain. Strain out the solids.
2. Pour 3.5kg of the lo han guo broth into a pot. Add 3.5kg Donggu Yipin Xian soy sauce, 50g chicken powder, 40g MSG. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add dark soy sauce as needed for color.
With the soy sauce broth prepared, place the chicken into the boiling broth. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. Remove the chicken, carve it, and serve with the soy sauce broth or white-cut chicken sauce (mix 50g minced ginger, 20g minced scallion whites, 3g salt, 3g MSG, mix well, then drizzle 150g heated salad oil over the mixture and stir to combine). Serve immediately.