~ Fatless Braised Dark Soy Sauce Whole Chicken ~
The last time I cooked Braised Dark Soy Sauce Chicken was for a specific part of the chicken, drumsticks, to encourage my little girl to eat on her own while seeing us eating the same drumstick. This little girl is now getting increasingly capable with self-feeding and I have a feeling that she will like soy sauce chicken just like I do when I was little. So, I have decided to upgrade my cooking this time with the whole chicken instead of specific parts. The push factor to cook this dish is partly due to recent talk of the town, Michelin Star Hong Kong Soy Sauce Chicken too. I’d say the publicity has been utmost successful that it reminded me of this childhood favourite dish of mine and moved me to prepare it!
I seldom purchase whole chicken. I usually buy my groceries the supermarkets rather than the wet markets, out of convenience and for the flexibility of visiting time. Only during my recent visit to NTUC Fair Price, I realised that they no longer provide poultry cutting service. This forced me to advance my chicken cutting skills. I had to remove the head, tail and claws on my own! I was dreading before I did it. However, once I did it for the first time, I thought it really is not as difficult as I initially imagined. So, I consider my culinary skills being up a whole new level now. :p
For sure, I would brag about cooking this dish with my AMC Pemium Cooking System, again. I cooked this dish without adding a single drop of oil nor a single drop of water. Most importantly, it was braised at the temperature of 98°C, fully automatically, after I caramelised the sugar, stir fried the spices and browned the chicken using the same AMC 20cm 3.0 litre Pot unit. I did not have to keep an eye on the cooking pot of chicken and I did not have to control the heat when braising took place. To be honest, I would not know at what point to turn the heat source to high heat, medium heat or low heat, if I were to cook manually. With an automatic system, I had a full 20 minutes, if not more, sitting at the living hall playing countless rounds of Bingo card game with my little girl whilst waiting for daddy to come home for a nice, cosy dinner. We could have gone to the playground but the endless downpour yesterday did not permit us to do so.
As my little girl was munching away her big bites of the chicken drumstick, she said, “Hmm…this is nice. Mummy can cook this and this again tomorrow”. That was said with her tiny finger pointing to the Basmati rice drizzled with soy sauce and the braised chicken drumstick on her plate. The secret lies in the right cooking temperature. As the chicken was braised at a temperature not exceeding 98°C, the chicken meat remained moist and the sauces did not dry up. With no additional oil and water added, the chicken taste and texture were excellent to earn a few thumbs up. Imagine if I have brought her to Chinatown for the Soy Sauce Chicken and she said that! I am certainly not ready to queue up for possibly up to 2 hours for some soy sauce chicken rice/noodles. The queueing time is definitely longer than the time of me cooking a somewhat similar dish from scratch a home.
Fatless Braised Soy Sauce Chicken Recipe (Serves 4) :
- 1 Whole Chicken, 900 grams (cleaned with head, tail and claws discarded)
- 5 tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce
- 2 1/2 tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
- 1 tablespoon Brown Sugar
- 5 thinly sliced Ginger
- 5 cloves Garlic (mashed with side of knife)
- 5 Shallots (sliced)
- 1/2 teaspoon 5 Spice Powder
- 2 Cloves
- 1 Star Anise
- 1 Cinnamon Stick
- 1 tablespoon Sesame Oil (garnishing)
- 2 stalks Spring Onion (garnishing)
AMC Healthy Cooking Method :
- Marinate chicken drumsticks with dark soy sauce and light soy sauce for 30 minutes in an AMC 20cm Combi Bowl unit.
- Preheat an AMC 20cm 3.0 litre Pot unit with a Navigenio on heat level “3” up to 50°C or “Meat Window”. Switch on Audiotherm indicating “Meat Window” for readiness indication.
- When Audiotherm beeps, remove lid. Add brown sugar into Pot unit. Add cloves, star anise, cinnamon sticks, garlic and shallots. Cover pot with lid. Swirl the Pot unit for 10 seconds to even out the ingredients at the base of pot. Remove lid.
- With a spoon, transfer the whole chicken with breasts facing down into the Pot unit. In a spinning act, turn the chicken 360° to coat well with the caramelised sugar. Pour the remaining sauces from the Combi Bowl into the Pot unit. Cover pot with lid.
- Switch on Navigenio to automatic mode “A”. Turn on Audiotherm, place on lid knob, indicating 80°C or “Carrot Window” and set on 20 minutes to braise the chicken.
- When Audiotherm beeps, turn off both Navigenio & Audiotherm. Add a tablespoon of sesame oil as the last touch to the dish. Cut the chicken into smaller pieces with a pair of scissors, arrange on a serving plate and serve warm with steamed rice.
Tips :
- For a nicely “coloured” chicken with dark sauce, do not add oil in the marinade process as oil prevents the sauce from permeating into the chicken. Sesame oil for a fragrant touch may be added last when the chicken is cooked.
- Meat browning with AMC Pots/Pans can be done the fatless way, i.e. without adding additional cooking oil. Hence, AMC Braised Dark Soy Sauce Chicken may appear really dark in colour.
All ingredients needed. Sugar and sesame oil not in picture.
Marinate whole chicken in an AMC 20cm Combi Bowl unit with dark soy sauce and light soy sauce for 30 minutes. With a spoon, pour the soy sauce into the inner part of the chicken to marinate all parts of the chicken.
Turn the chicken to the other side after 15 minutes of marinate.
Preheat an AMC 20cm 5.0 litre Pot unit up to 50C or “Meat Window”.
Add the brown sugar into the preheated Pot unit.
It takes about 1 minute for the sugar to melt and caramelise.
Add all other ingredients, except sesame oil and gently stir fry.
Lift the chicken with a spoon ….
…. and place it breast side down into the Pot unit.
Place breast side down.
Insert a spoon into the inner part of the chicken and turn it 360 degree to “dye” the chicken breasts with caramelised sugar.
Turn and turn round the clock …
Turn 3 rounds and the chicken shall be nicely “dyed” with black soy sauce.
Pour the remaining of the soy sauces into the Pot unit.
Turn Navigenio on automatic mode, “A” and set to cook for 20 minutes from “Carrot Window” or 80C.
This is what it looks like when done. Drizzle some sesame oil onto the chicken to give it a nice final touch.
Turn the chicken to the other side to immerse it into the dark soy sauce before cutting.
I cut the chicken into half to serve. The other half is stored away in the refrigerator.
Cut into smaller pieces for easy consumption. I cut the chicken with a pair of scissors as I wanted to safe the efforts of having to wash a cutting board.