Braised Chicken Legs
香鸡腿
I prefer the smaller chicken legs, rather than the monster drumsticks we see in the supermarkets these days. They absorb more flavour and are juicer than the bigger ones, but be warned, it’s tough to stop eating them. I’ve said this serves 2-3, but I’ve been known to each the whole batch myself after a day in the gym, so if you’ve got some hungry boys around, you might want to double up the recipe.
There’s an old restaurant chain called sha xian xiao chi (沙县小吃) where you can still buy humble dishes like this, but mostly, this has become a recipe of Chinese families cooking at home these days. Simple dishes are being displaced in restaurants in favour of fancier, more complex food, but give me a plate of braised chicken legs over wagyu beef any day.
The cheat's way to make this dish (and a common method in China) is to ignore all the ingredients below and braise the legs in Coca-Cola and a few slices of ginger, and then season with a bit of soy sauce near the end.
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
500 - 600g chicken legs
2 teaspoons salt
For the marinade:
1 tablespoon garlic - minced
3 - Spring Onion - cut into 3 inch pieces
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 star anise
2 small slice of ginger
Black pepper
Oil for frying
To finish:
1-2 teaspoons honey (to taste)
Salt (to taste)
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
Method
Make a few cuts into the meat so the marinade can penetrate deeper. Put the legs into a mixing bowl and fill with cold water add two teaspoons of salt. Leave the chicken legs to soak for 30 minutes. This helps tenderise the meat, as well as drawing out the blood.
Pour out the water and then add the marinade ingredients. Mix the marinade so that it coats the legs, then leave for another 30 minutes, but by all means, longer.
When ready to cook, heat a frying pan on a medium heat with a drizzle of oil. Take the legs out of the marinade and fry on all sides until browned.
Pour the marinade into the pan with around a cup of water - you want the liquid to cover most of the legs. Bring to the boil, and then reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15-30 minutes depending on the size of your chicken legs. Give the legs a stir every now and again.
If if still looks like there’s too much liquid, pour off most of it, then drizzle over the honey, dark soy sauce, and salt to taste, then turn up the heat and cook for 1-2 minutes until the legs become darker and stickier. Pour the chicken legs and remaining juice into a bowl and serve.
