Real African Dishes: [MC-AllEthnic-Recipes] Chicken in Chinese Master Sauce

* Exported from MasterCook *

Chicken in Chinese Master Sauce

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 7 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Fowl/Poultry LowerCarbs

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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3/4 cup light soy sauce -- such as Kikkoman
3/4 cup dark soy sauce -- or double soy sauce, such as Koon Chun brand
1 1/4 cups Chinese rice wine -- Shao-Hsing or dry sherry
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 inch fresh ginger -- to 3-inches, peeled and crushed
5 scallions -- white and green parts, coarsely chopped
2 1/2 star anise -- bruised
3 3/4 pounds chicken -- to 4 pounds, organic if possible
Garnish:
3 scallions -- white and green parts, cut on an angle into 1-inch lengths
To serve: -- Sichuan Dipping Sauce and Roasted Sichuan Pepper and Salt (optional) recipes follow

Simmer the sauce: in a 4-quart saucepan with good heat distribution (which should hold the chicken snugly with just enough room to turn it over), combine the soy sauces, wine, sugar, ginger, scallions, and star anise with 1 1/4 cups water. Bring to a boil.

Cook the chicken: placing a long fork or cooking chopsticks in the chicken's cavity, carefully slip the chicken into the liquid, breast side up. Tuck the chicken down into the pot so the liquid almost covers the bird. Leave a third of the breast unsubmerged so it cooks more slowly and remains moist. Add a little more water if needed. Baste the liquid over the breast three or four times. Adjust the heat so a bubble surfaces every 4 or 5 seconds.

Cover the pot and don't worry if the lid doesn't seal and cook for 25 minutes. Turn the chicken breast side down. Try not to break the skin. Cook at the barest bubble for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thigh reads 160F.

Off the heat, cool the pot, covered, for 20 minutes, or until a thigh reads 170F. Refrigerate the chicken in its sauce for 12 to 24 hours. Baste and turn every few hours so the chicken colors evenly. The chicken keeps for about 3 days, but if it is left in the sauce that long, the sauce overwhelms the meat. Remove the chicken from the sauce after 24 hours. Skim off the sauce's fat, strain the sauce, and refrigerate the chicken and sauce separately.

Serve the chicken: back in the 4-quart pot, warm the bird in its strained sauce over medium to medium-high heat. Serve it Chinese style by cutting into quarters. Then slice each breast cross-wise into four or five pieces. Separate the legs and thighs. Assemble pieces in a single layer, skin side up, on a platter. Sprinkle with the sliced scallions. Spoon about 1/3 cup of the sauce over th meat. Accompany with Sichuan Dipping Sauce and/or Roasted Sichuan Pepper and Salt, and serve with steamed long-grain rice.

Serves 6 to 8 as part of a Chinese menu, and 4 as a main dish
Prep time: 20 mins
Stove time: 50 mins
Rest time: 1 day
The chicken can be made a couple of days ahead and refrigerated in its sauce up to 24 hours. After that, refrigerate the sauce and chicken separately. The chicken is good cool, or warmed in the sauce. Serve with rice.

AuthorNote: Utterly uncomplicated, this recipe may very well become your household chicken for summer picnics, sandwiches, and salads.

Master sauce plays more to fairy tale than truth - in China it is a sauce that you would use again and again to simmer different meats until it becomes your own personal ambrosia. Then, in your final hours, you pass it on to your kin. The sauce never dies; it goes on for decades and is always evolving into something more - at least that is the story.

Although the name and some ingredients change from one part of China to another, all master sauce recipes share the basics you find here. As for passing it on to your kin, just freeze the sauce between cooking stints, replenishing ingredients as needed, and put it in your will.

The two essentials in this dish are using a pot that holds the bird snugly so the sauce barely covers it, and keeping the liquid at lowest bubble possible. You should be able to count slowly to four between each eruption. You may need to put the pot on a flame tamer to mute heat transfer.

There are two soy sauces in this recipe. Dark or double soy sauce is aged, rich in color, and slightly sweet. The Koon Chun brand is worth looking for. Light or thin soy sauce is what to use whenever simply "soy sauce" is called for. Younger and paler than the dark, it has excellent flavor. Kikkoman brand, even though Japanese, works well here. Avoid "lite" or low-sodium sauces. Their flavors do not measure up.

FIVE THINGS TO DO WITH MASTER SAUCE
1. Put the master sauce in your will, or gift friends - very good friends - with it.
2. Baste vegetables, [favorites] with master sauce while grilling or roasting.
3. MASTER SAUCE SOBA NOODLES WITH GINGER AND CHILE: moisten hot soba noodles with warm master sauce. Then toss with minced fresh ginger, chiles, and fresh basil.
4. MASTER SAUCE GLAZED ONIONS: simmer 1 1/2 pounds small onions in master sauce, then marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Glaze the onions by boiling down 1 1/2 cups sauce in a large skillet. When it's boiled down by two-thirds, add the onions and keep boiling until the sauce is syrupy and the onions are coasted with it. Serve hot or warm as a side dish for [favorite]. Turn the onions into a condiment for cheeses or sandwiches by thinly slicing the glazed onions.
5. SLOWLY ROLLED SWEET CORN IN MASTER SAUCE: melt a stick of unsalted butter with 2 teaspoons minced fresh gingers. Whisk in the master sauce to taste and heat through. Pour the sauce over a platter of hot, just-cooked corn on the cob. Roll the corn in the sauce and have a wonderful sloppy time.

Sichuan Dipping Sauce
1 piece fresh ginger -- 1-1/2 inch long, peeled & minced
2 large garlic cloves -- minced
3 tablespoons soy sauce -- (Kikkoman is a personal choice)
1 1/2 tablespoons Shanxi vinegar -- or balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons rice wine -- or dry sherry
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes -- or to taste
2 tablespoons Vietnamese chile sauce -- (ingredients are chile, garlic, sugar, salt, and vinegar)

Blend all the ingredients in a small bowl and serve at room temperature.

Makes 3/4 cup (12 one-tablespoon servings); doubles easily
Prep time: 10 mins
Keeps refrigerated 1 week

AuthorNote: Non-Chinese dishes take to this sauce, too - chicken salad, barbecue, sausages, roast chicken, and most especially the baked potato. Mash some into a baked Idaho and see what you think.

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 36 Calories; 2g Fat (56.2% calories from fat); trace Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 291mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

Roasted Sichuan Pepper and Salt
1/3 cup Sichuan peppercorns -- sometimes labeled Dried Prickly Ash
1/2 cup Kosher salt

In a dry 10-inch skillet, toast the peppercorn over medium heat for about 2 minutes, or until fragrant and slightly darkened. Remove from the pan, cool, and use a coffee grinder or blender to grind the peppercorns to a coarse powder.

Makes 2/3 cup (10 one-tablespoon servings)
Prep time: 10 mins
Stove time: 5 mins

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 24 Calories; trace Fat (8.7% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 4516mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Fat.

Cuisine:
"Chinese"
Source:
"Splendid Table's How to Eat Weekends by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift, 2011"
S(Formatted by Chupa Babi):
"Jan 2012"
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 522 Calories; 28g Fat (51.4% calories from fat); 33g Protein; 26g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 160mg Cholesterol; 1199mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 4 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 3 Fat; 1 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0