Soy Sauce Chicken (Cantonese Style)
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Soy Sauce Chicken (Cantonese Style)

👤 4 servings medium 🌍 Chinese facebook.com ↗

A classic Cantonese poaching technique that showcases how to infuse chicken with deep, complex flavors while preserving its natural texture and juiciness. This dish uses a master stock built from aromatic spices and soy seasonings, creating a restaurant-quality result at home. The master stock can be reused and improved with each preparation, making it a foundational technique for Chinese cooking.

Ingredients

  • 4 large chicken legs
  • 2 tsp ginger
  • 0.25 tsp white pepper
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp cornflour
  • 2 tbsp rice wine
  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
  • chicken bones and fat
  • 2 sprig spring onion
  • 12 cloves garlic
  • 50 g ginger
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 1 litre water
  • 1.5 tbsp salt
  • 0.25 cup light soy sauce
  • 0.25 cup dark soy sauce
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp clove
  • 5 bay leaves
  • 1 cassia bark
  • 2 black cardamom
  • 1 tsp five spice
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp fennel seeds
  • 3 star anise
  • 1 tsp black peppercorn
  • 5 spring onion
  • 50 g ginger
  • 0.25 tsp white pepper
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp chicken powder
  • 200 ml oil

Instructions

  1. Debone the chicken legs, remove excess fat, crack the bones and set aside.
  2. Mix the deboned chicken with grated ginger, white pepper, salt, cornflour, rice wine, and dark soy sauce in a bowl. Set aside to marinate.
  3. Heat oil in a pot on medium-high heat and fry the aromatic ingredients (spring onion, smacked garlic, sliced ginger) along with the reserved chicken bones and fat for a few minutes.
  4. Add all the spices to the pot (clove, bay leaves, cassia bark, black cardamom, five spice, garlic powder, toasted fennel seeds, star anise, black peppercorn).
  5. Pour in the water and add the salt, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and brown sugar.
  6. Simmer the master stock for 40 minutes.
  7. Remove the bones and ginger slices from the stock.
  8. Poach the marinated chicken legs in the master stock on medium-low heat for 18-22 minutes until cooked through.
  9. While chicken cooks, prepare the ginger relish by combining finely chopped spring onion, finely chopped ginger, white pepper, salt, sugar, and chicken powder in a heat-proof bowl.
  10. Heat oil to approximately 240°C and pour the heated oil over the ginger relish ingredients. Stir and set aside.
  11. Slice the cooked chicken and serve over rice with Asian greens and ginger relish.
  12. To store the master stock: bring to a boil, strain and filter out all spices, allow to cool, skim off the fat, pour into a leak-proof bag and freeze for future use.

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