Recipe – Soy Sauce Chicken

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Years ago Uwajimaya used to have a little rack near the check-out area that had free recipe cards for a variety of Asian dishes. This is one of the recipes that I picked up there. It is a very simple recipe, with few steps, but it has a ton of flavor. I find that it needs a relatively bland vegetable on the side to balance that out.

Cook time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Preparation steps:

  • Measure all the ingredients
  • Cut half an inch off of a root of ginger, then use the flat of your knife blade to crush it flat. You want the juice from the ginger to be freely available to mix with the rest of the cooking liquid.

Notes: The star anise and 5-spice powder are not super necessary for this recipe. You will miss some of the subtlety, but the basic flavor profile will be there. Shaoxing wine would be the normal rice wine to use in this recipe, but you could use mirin in a pinch. Again, the flavor wouldn’t be exactly right, but it would still be very tasty.

As with most of my recipes, this calls for bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, but the skin isn’t necessary. It will stay rubbery and will contribute a lot of unneeded fat to the dish. I would recommend removing the skin. You can cut it off, or you can just tear it off. 

Ingredients
  • 3-4 chicken thighs
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 water
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup rice wine
  • 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1/2 tsp 5-spice powder
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 piece star anise
  • 1/2 inch of fresh ginger, crushed
Substitutions & Remixes
  • Substitute the chicken thighs with drumsticks or a whole fryer
  • Use turbinado instead of brown sugar
  • Add green onions
  • Mix in some sliced mushrooms
Pair It With

  1. Add everything but the chicken to a pot. Stir to combine.
  2. Bring the liquid to a boil.

  1. When it starts to boil, put the chicken into the pot and reduce the heat to a simmer.
  2. Cook, covered for 40 minutes.

  1. After 40 minutes, flip the chicken thighs, cover and cook for another 40 minutes.

Eat! Be sure to fish out the garlic and ginger before serving. The sauce is very flavorful and can be ladled over the side dishes, or saved to use in another dish. 

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