Nine legs sounds like a lot until you realise they are as good cold the next day. The slit down the middle of each one is what makes a short braise work: the soy and the rendered sugar reach the bone in ten minutes instead of forty, and the meat stays tight rather than falling apart.
Chinese · Main
Soy Braised Chicken Legs With Bay Leaf and Cassia Bark
Legs are blanched, slit at the bone and caramelised in rock sugar before a ten minute braise in soy, bay leaf and cassia, then reduced to a sticky glaze.
- Prep15 min
- Cook25 min
- Serves4
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 9 | chicken legs , about 1 kg |
| 3 | bay leaves |
| 4 | cassia bark pieces |
| 2 tbsp | light soy sauce |
| 1 tbsp | dark soy sauce |
| 2 | lumps rock sugar |
| 3 | scallion segments |
| 5 | ginger slices |
| 3 tbsp | Shaoxing wine |
| 1 tsp | salt |
| 700 ml | hot water |
Method
- Soak the chicken legs in cold water for 10 minutes, then rinse them and pull off any feather stubs.
- Cut a single slit down the thickest part of each leg, through to the bone, so the braising liquid can get inside.
- Put the legs in a pan of cold water with 2 tbsp of the Shaoxing wine, the scallion segments and half the ginger. Bring to a boil and skim off the grey foam as it rises.
- Lift the legs out and rinse them under warm water. Cold water will tighten the skin and leave it greasy later.
- Heat a film of oil in a heavy pan, add the rock sugar and stir over medium heat until it melts and turns the colour of dark honey.
- Add the legs and turn them in the caramel, then pour in both soy sauces, the rest of the wine, the hot water, the bay leaves, cassia and remaining ginger.
- Cover and braise over medium heat for 10 minutes, turning the legs once halfway.
- Add the salt, uncover, raise the heat and reduce until the liquid coats the legs in a sticky glaze.
Notes
- Skim the blanching water properly. Foam left in the pot turns the finished glaze cloudy and tastes of blood.
- Ten minutes is enough because of the slit. Longer and the leg meat starts to shred when you lift it out.
- The glaze thickens as it cools, so stop reducing while it still looks a little loose in the pan.
Ratios and technique checked against 大明明的小厨房 on Douguo (卤鸡腿). 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.