The glaze here is built in two stages. First a caramel of rock sugar and star anise, which gives the skin its amber colour. Then, once the sauce has reduced to a syrup, a spoon of honey is stirred in off the heat, because honey loses its perfume if it boils for long.
Chinese · Main
Honey Glazed Drumsticks Braised in Their Own Sugar Colour
Six drumsticks are turned in a dark caramel, braised for fifteen minutes, then finished with a spoon of honey stirred into the reduced sauce just before it cools.
- Prep15 min
- Cook35 min
- Serves3
- LevelMedium
Ingredients
| 6 | chicken drumsticks |
| 1 slice | ginger , peeled |
| 1 | star anise |
| 2 tbsp | light soy sauce |
| 2 tbsp | oyster sauce |
| 25 g | rock sugar , a generous handful |
| 1 tbsp | Shaoxing wine |
| 1 tbsp | dark soy sauce , for colour at the end |
| 1 tbsp | honey |
| salt | to taste |
| 700 ml | boiling water , enough to just cover the chicken |
Method
- Put the drumsticks in a pot of cold water with the Shaoxing wine, bring it to a boil and skim off the grey foam as it rises. Lift the chicken out once the water runs clear.
- Heat a little oil in a wide pan and add the rock sugar over medium low heat. Let it melt and darken to a deep amber with dense bubbles, then turn the heat to its lowest setting.
- Add the drumsticks and put the lid on straight away. The sugar will spit hard against the wet skin, and the lid is what keeps it off your arms.
- Wait thirty seconds, then take the lid off and turn the drumsticks through the caramel over medium heat until they are evenly coated.
- Add the soy sauces and the oyster sauce and turn everything until the colour is even.
- Pour in the boiling water, enough to just cover the chicken, add the ginger and star anise, and boil hard for five minutes.
- Cover, drop to low and braise for 15 minutes.
- Lift out the chicken and fish out the star anise and ginger. Raise the heat and reduce the sauce until it coats a spoon.
- Take the pan off the heat, let the sauce cool for a minute, then stir in the honey and spoon it over the drumsticks.
Notes
- Add the honey off the heat. Boiled honey turns bitter and loses the floral note that the name promises.
- Taste the braising liquid before reducing it. It should read slightly under seasoned, because reduction concentrates the salt.
- The caramel step is the only one that can fail. If the sugar seizes, add a spoon of hot water and keep stirring over low heat until it melts again.
Ratios and technique checked against 臧伟_两米零二 on Douguo (蜜汁琵琶腿｜红烧鸡腿｜米饭不够吃系列｜超级详细). 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.