Red-Cooked Chicken

Someone in another thread asked what to do with Star Anise aside from garnish. It is traditionally used in a number of Chinese dishes. This recipe is from Nina Simonds, "Classic Chinese Cuisine". It sounds a little odd; but, the combination of spices, sweet, and salty are quite nice.

Red-cooked Chicken

"Red-cooking, or slow cooking in a soy-based liquid is extremely popular all over China, since the preparation is simple and the flavor is complementary to rice. The cooking liquid (lu) may be used repeatedly to braise not only chicken, but pork, lamb, beef, bean curd, and hard boiled eggs as well. In fact, the flavor intensifies and improves with each use. One fourth of the ingredients (except the spices) should be replenished with each reuse. By the fifth use, the spices should be replaced."

Ingredients:

1 cinnamon stick or a piece of Chinese or Mexican cinnamon bark
1 whole star anise
2 pieces dried tangerine or orange peel, about 2 inches long
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 1/2 cups soy sauce
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup rice wine
6 cups water

1 whole roasting chicken, 4-5 pounds
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Method:

1 Place the red-cooking liquid in a heavy pot or dutch oven and heat until boiling. Reduce the heat to low and let the liquid simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
2 Rinse the chicken lightly, drain, and remove any fat from the cavity and neck. Place the chicken, breast side down, in the red cooking liquid and cook for 1 1/4 hours, turning the chicken two or three times during the cooking. Turn off the heat and let the chicken sit in the liquid for 15 minutes; them remove it. Brush the surface of the chicken with the sesame oil. Cut the chicken into bite size serving pieces and arrange them on a platter. Spoon a little of the cooking liquid over the chicken and serve.

fixed typos

This message was edited Nov 6, 2004 11:56 AM