Chestnuts and chicken braise together across most of southern China once the weather turns, and this version keeps the liquid deliberately short: most of a bowl, no more, so the sauce never thins out. The bird renders its own fat after the wine goes in, which is why the recipe needs almost no oil. Freezer chestnuts work; the slit-and-boil step is the same.
Chinese home cooking · Main
Chestnut Braised Chicken for the First Cold Weeks of Autumn
A whole half chicken and 200 grams of chestnuts braise in soy, oyster sauce and barely a bowl of water, until the liquid cooks down to a third and the pan glazes itself.
- Prep25 min
- Cook40 min
- Serves4
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 900 g | chicken , half a bird, chopped through the bone into pieces |
| 200 g | chestnuts , peeled |
| 2 tbsp | Shaoxing wine |
| 1.5 tbsp | soy sauce |
| 1 tbsp | oyster sauce |
| 3 | ginger slices |
| 1 tsp | ground white pepper |
| 300 ml | water , most of a bowl |
| 2 tbsp | neutral oil , for the pan |
Method
- Cut a slit in each chestnut shell, boil them for 3 minutes, then soak in cold water until cool enough to handle and peel out the kernels.
- Chop the chicken into even pieces and rinse.
- Heat the oil in a wok and fry the ginger slices until they smell sharp.
- Add the chicken and toss fast over high heat.
- Pour the wine down the side of the wok and keep frying until the alcohol smell burns off and the chicken starts to render its own fat.
- Season with the pepper, soy sauce and oyster sauce and toss until every piece is coated and dark.
- Add the chestnuts and stir them through.
- Pour in the water, cover, and turn to medium-low. Simmer until only a third of the liquid is left.
- Uncover, raise the heat, and reduce until the sauce clings to the chicken and chestnuts. Serve hot.
Notes
- Slit the shells before boiling or the nuts fight back; the cold soak after boiling loosens the inner skin.
- A free-range bird gives more flavour, but any chopping-ready whole chicken works at this ratio.
Ratios and technique checked against 爱生活的馋猫 on Douguo (板栗烧鸡). The method here is written by Stellaok; the photograph is the source kitchen's, credited on the image above and linked back to the page it came from. No recipe text is reproduced.