Hongshao chicken is the dish a Chinese cook makes when there is no time to think. There is no blanching and no marinade. The chicken goes into a hot wok dry, renders its own fat, and takes the sauce in the last few minutes. Half a bird feeds three people with rice.
Chinese home cooking · Main
Red-Braised Chicken With Green and Red Pepper
A fast home braise: the chicken is dry-fried first so the skin renders, then sugar and soy go in and the whole thing reduces to a sticky glaze.
- Prep15 min
- Cook20 min
- Serves3
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 1/2 | free-range chicken , cut into pieces |
| 30 g | cooking oil |
| 8 g | salt |
| 4 slices | ginger |
| 20 g | light soy sauce |
| 15 g | Shaoxing wine |
| 10 g | caster sugar |
| 1 | green pepper , in strips |
| 1 | red pepper , in strips |
| 2 | scallions , cut into lengths |
Method
- Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat until it shimmers, then add the chicken pieces in one layer.
- Leave them alone for 2 minutes so the skin takes colour, then turn and keep frying.
- When the oil in the wok runs clear instead of cloudy, add the salt, ginger and soy, and stir to coat.
- Add the sugar and cook for another minute, until it darkens against the chicken.
- Pour in half a small bowl of water, cover, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add both peppers, turn the heat to high, and reduce until the sauce clings to the pieces rather than pooling.
- Take the wok off the heat, fold through the scallions, and serve with rice.
Notes
- The cloudy-to-clear change in the oil is the signal to season. Adding salt earlier draws water out and the chicken steams instead of frying.
- Free-range bird needs the full 3 to 4 minutes covered. A supermarket chicken will be done in 2 and goes stringy if cooked longer.
- Sugar is doing the glazing, not the sweetening. If the sauce looks thin at the end, the heat was too low.
Ratios and technique checked against 不想做厨子的日语老师不是好男人 on Douguo (红烧鸡块). The method here is written by Stellaok and the illustration is ours; no text or photograph from the source is reproduced.