Indulge in a light yet flavourful chicken swimming in soy and sesame that’s at once refreshing and nostalgic. Its ingredients of various spices and condiments will make the scouring worth it, considering you don’t have to spend much time to watch over the dish at all!
Ingredients
- 1.6 kg whole chicken
- 5 cm piece fresh ginger (25 g), sliced thinly
- 4 clove garlic, halved
- 2 star anise
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 cup (250 ml) light soy sauce
- 1 cup (250 ml) Chinese cooking wine (Shao Hsing)
- ⅓ cup (75 g) white (granulated) sugar
- 1 litre (4 cups) water
- 2 tbsps light soy sauce, extra
- 2 tsps sesame oil
- 2 tbsps peanut oil
- 2 clove garlic, cut into matchsticks
- 2.5 cm piece fresh ginger (15 g), cut into matchsticks
- 2 fresh long red chillies, seeded, sliced thinly
- 4 green onions (scallions), sliced thinly
- ½ cup loosely packed fresh coriander sprigs
Steps
01.
Remove excess fat from chicken. Place chicken in a 4.5 litre (18 cup) slow cooker. Add sliced ginger, halved garlic, star anise, cinnamon, sauce, wine, sugar and the water. Cook, covered, on low, 6 hrs. Carefully transfer chicken to a chopping board. Reserve ¾ cup of the poaching liquid; discard the remainder.
02.
Cut chicken into 12 pieces; place on a platter. Drizzle extra sauce, sesame oil and reserved poaching liquid over chicken.
03.
Heat peanut oil in a small saucepan, over medium heat, until very hot; taking care as mixture will spatter, add garlic and ginger matchsticks. Immediately spoon hot oil mixture over chicken. Sprinkle with chilli, onion and coriander.
TIP You can use ½ cup dry sherry with ½ cup water instead of the Chinese cooking wine. This dish is suitable to freeze at the end of step 1.
Photo: bauersyndication.com.au
