Comments on: Real-Deal Soy Sauce Chicken (豉油鸡, See Yao Gai)

By: Maggie Zhu

Maggie Zhu — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:46:47 +0000

In reply to Sierra.

I love to serve the chicken with a bit sweet soy sauce mixed with regular soy sauce. And some hot sauce (chili garlic sauce or sriracha).
I think I know the ginger sauce you’re talking about. The base should be rice vinegar (or white vinegar) with grated ginger, a very small touch of garlic, pinch of salt and some sugar to balance it out.
Depending on the restaurant sometimes it has minced cilantro mixed in it, but it’s not a must. Don’t have a recipe now but I’ll look into it.

By: Sierra

Sierra — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 04:36:09 +0000

Really excited to try this recipe! We don’t have any authentic Chinese places around and I’ve missed soy sauce chicken! Some places serve the chicken cold with a ginger sauce that is really good, but I am clueless on how to make the ginger sauce. Do you have any good recipes for that? (Or even know what I’m talking about? Maybe I am mixing up dishes)

By: Errol

Errol — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 00:17:05 +0000

This Dish was so nice Maggie.The sauces were so delicious as had the other night.Thank you Maggie.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 05:22:19 +0000

We just had this for dinner tonight and it was AWESOME! I loved the overnight marinating step, such a good idea that imparts so much flavor into this chicken.
I made some minor changes: 1) pan fried all the aromatics before boiling up the sauce 2) I used palm sugar 3) I used 1.5 cups of soy sauce and 1 tbs of sesame oil 4) 1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder instead of a stick 5)no fennel seeds.
My chicken was close to 5lb and it fit snugly into my 4 qt pot. I was able to marinate and cook the chicken in that pot, and only needed to add 2 cups of water.
I plan to make this for future family gatherings. Thank you for such a fantastic recipe!

By: Maggie Zhu

Maggie Zhu — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 00:23:09 +0000

In reply to Maxwell. Frying aromatics definitely help building flavor more, although many traditional Chinese recipes boil the spices directly when it comes to braising. In this case, I think you can definitely fry the aromatics. Actually the traditional recipe usually does not include marinating I think. the trick is to use super young and small chicken that has a very thin layer of meat (very hard to come by in the US), so you can infuse quite a bit flavor during the cooking. Plus, since it's a street / restaurant dish, the chicken is usually left in the broth after cooking so it gets marinated more. For home cooking, I found marinating first will get you the most flavor using a regular size chicken.

By: Maxwell

Maxwell — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 01:15:38 +0000

I’ve been researching this recipe and have read or watched about 15 instructions. Yours is the first to advise marinating – Kudos. I don’t see how you can get enough infused flavor without marinating. My only objection, if you can even call it that, is you are not frying the aromatics in the beginning, just pouring sauce in pot to heat. I don’t have your experience, but would like to know if you think frying the aromatics is a waste of time and effort? This is pretty traditional in Chinese cooking.

By: Bridget K

Bridget K — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 13:34:06 +0000

Had a whole chicken to cook for dinner and came across your recipe. So doable compared to the many Si Yau Kai (soy chicken) recipes I scrolled through - no honey! I only used 1/2 cup sugar as one cup seems a lot (also only had castor sugar in the house) but everything else according to the recipe. Marinated for about three hours. The method of cooking is similar to one of my favorite hainanese chicken rice recipe(chicken goes into boiling water, 30 minutes simmering and 30 minutes rest), so I know the chicken will be tender when done. The thighs were not fully submerged (despite 4 cups of water)so I suspected they could be undercooked. I was right but that was easily rectified by submerging the thighs again in the simmering liquid. Overall the chicken turned out so yummy and the meat was so tender. Slightly salty, probably due to the reduced amount of sugar. Will certainly give it another go . Thanks Maggie for the lovely detailed recipe and helpful hints

By: Maggie

Maggie — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 02:17:05 +0000

In reply to Angela Wong.

I think you should definitely reduce the sitting in the pot time because it’s a bit harder to control. It’s the best to monitor the temperature and take out the chicken as soon as the temperature of the thickest part of the thigh reaches 165 F.
I’m glad to hear you like the sauce! You can use it as a noodle sauce as well. It’s really good drizzle with a bit chili oil 🙂

By: Angela Wong

Angela Wong — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 01:00:54 +0000

Hi Maggie,

I tried this recipe and the sauce was delicious. I had a smaller near 2 lbs chicken so I took one of the other comments you made to reduce the cooking to 10-15 mins. I went to 15 mins but let the chicken sit in the sauce for 30 mins after turning off the heat. The chicken was a bit drier than I would have liked and the internal temperature was 170. I’d really like to try this again because the taste was fantastic but wanted to ask whether you’d recommend reducing the cooking time or the sit in the pot time. What would you recommend?

BTW, the sauce is so good, we saved it to marinate eggs. Mm

By: Barbara OConnor

Barbara OConnor — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 04:27:31 +0000

When I was a kid my much older sister had a Chinese boyfriend. They used to take me on picnics (as a chaperone?) and he always used to take a cold chicken. I loved it! Took me over 60 years to find out what it actually was and how to cook it. Seems a shame to waste the stock, so I strain it, pour into a 2 litre soft drink bottle, and put in the freezer for next time. There’s always a next time and when it comes around, I check the seasoning and add whatever it needs, in addition to the garlic, ginger, etc.