Red-cooked chicken, delicious!
Red-cooked chicken is a common method to cook chicken in Eastern China. The red color is actually not really red but more like a reddish-brown tinge imparted by the use of soy sauce. Originally the cooking method would be to slowly simmer a whole chicken in a spiced mixture of soy sauce, rice wine and water. Here, I give a slow-cooker method which would make the chicken also tender but without the long waiting. The meat of the chicken fell apart from the bones and I was very pleased with the ratio of the spices with the other ingredients. The red-cooking liquid can be saved after you allow it to cool down a bit and strain it through a strainer. Discard any solids and keep in the refrigerator for a week or 10 days. Anything you don’t use within those days I advise you to freeze it. To reuse the liquid, discard the solidified fat at the top and pour the liquid into the cooker, add a fresh chicken and proceed as directed in the recipe. After every third or fourth use, refresh the liquid by adding 1/2 cup of soy sauce and half of the seasonings.
When I served it, I paired it with a baby bok choy stir-fried with lots of garlic and steamed rice. It’s a very good dinner even my son who seldom asked for second, wanted a little bit more rice with the sauce on top. Brilliant!
Red-Cooked Chicken
Serves 4 to 6
Cooker: Medium or large, oval preferred
One 3- to 4-pound broiler/fyer
Red-cooking liquid:
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine or dry sherry
2 tablespoons sugar
2 green onions (white and green parts), roughly chopped
Two 1/2-inch slices ginger, lightly crushed
1 whole star anise
1 stick cinnamon
1 clove garlic, lightly crushed
1 strip (about 3 inches) orange zest, removed with a vegetable peeler
Wash the chicken and dry thoroughly. Remove the gibblets and discard or reserve for another use. Cut off any lumps of fat. If you have time, place the chicken on a plate and refrigerate it uncovered for a couple of hours. The drier the chicken is, the more color it will absorb from the sauce.
Combine the red-cooking liquid ingredients in the crock and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the chicken and turn to coat it with liquid. Leave it breast side up. Cover and cook on HIGH for 1 hour.
Carefully turn the chicken over, breast side down, using a sturdy wooden spoon inserted in the cavity and a rubber spatula to help you guide the chicken; take care to avoid splashing. Cover and cook on HIGH until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 180°F, about 1 hour more.
Remove the chicken from the cooker. If you wish to serve it cold, refrigerate, uncovered, until chilled before cutting it up. To serve the chicken warm, put it on a cutting board and allow it to cool a bit. Then carve the chicken Western style, or if you have a heavy cleaver, chop it into 2-inch pieces. Arrange the chicken on a platter and drizzle a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid over it.
Source: Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann
easy stir-fry baby bok choy with lotsa garlic…
Wow, really packing in the flavours.
I’ll bet it smells incredible.
Nice choice of a side too.
thanks Graeme. it did smelled delicious…
Comment by Graeme — January 20, 2008 @ 7:20 am
i can believe the flavour is good!
thank you for believing me!
Comment by arfi — January 20, 2008 @ 11:06 pm
Whoa, another complete meal I would love to have with rice
Comment by tigerfish — January 23, 2008 @ 2:45 am