Braised Soya Sauce Chicken (See Yau Gai)

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Here's my recipe for See Yau Gai, cobbled from a few sources and adjusted after comments from my famously "JeemJeui" (Cantonese saying meaning 'sharp mouthed' or picky) father. Some notes:

- Accordingly to daddy-oh, the commonest mistake in making braising sauce is (1) making it too sweet; and (2) adding too much spices.  We find that most recipes out there overload on spices especially cinnamon and star anise, which are very overpowering.  Also, braising sauce is nice when it is a little more salty than sweet (e.g. the tau yu bak level of sweetness for this dish is wrong).  Because I always agak-agak when cooking, even this last batch of master sauce I made veered on the too sweet side, so I have adjusted the recipe.  Depending on the brand of soya sauce you use, you really have to taste the master sauce and make your own adjustments accordingly - adding or reducing salt or sugar accordingly. I use 2 types of dark soya sauce - one cheap and one expensive, because I find it very 'sayang' to use so much of the expensive one.  If you use only the superior dark soya sauce,  take note that you will have to increase the water because this sauce is thicker.

- The next tricky thing about this dish is trying to get JUST the right level of doneness for the chicken. Same problem for chicken rice. It should be just done, not even a few seconds overcooked, so that it will be tender like Boon Tong Kee chicken. The bone will usually be a little red but there should be no blood oozing out, yikes! Doing it just right every time takes practice and also consistency in choosing the same-sized chicken every time, and I must confess I have not reached that level of consistency. This is why BTK charges an arm and a leg for their perfectly done chicken. So, take the cooking time here as a guide and don't be dismayed if your chicken is a little underdone or overdone. Overdone, cannot be helped lah. But if after chopping up your chicken you find that it is underdone, you can pour boiling hot master sauce over it to just bring it to the point of doneness (a trick I learnt from a friend).  Of course you can also give it a quick blitz inthe microwave and vow to do better next time ;) Another thing, trying to lift out a whole hot chicken out of the pot, and to cut the chicken into pieces ala your hawker can be tricky for the home cook. So if lazy boil chicken thighs instead which is what I do. 1 thigh (including drumstick) feeds 2 adults, so use that as your guide.

Lastly, if you want your homemade Master Sauce to taste phenomenal, you will have to add that dreaded ingredient called MSG. So sorry but it gives a real 'bite' to the sauce.  I don't like to use it myself, so if you omit it like me, don't expect to compare it to your favourite restaurant See Yau Gai. But I assure you it will still be pretty good!!

(1) Chicken Marinade
- 3/4 tbsp salt
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 4 tbsp light soy sauce

Rub all over chicken (either 1 whole chicken or 5 chicken thighs) and leave to marinate for a few hours.

(2) Master Sauce (Lu Sui)
- 1/2 cup standard grade dark sauce
- 1/4 cup superior grade dark soy sauce (must be thick, use Kwong Cheong Thye brand)*
- 1 1/2 cups light soy sauce
- 1 piece of rock sugar about the size of medium potato
- 1/2 cup Huatiao Chiew (Chinese cooking wine)
- 1.5 litre water
- 2 thumb size pieces of ginger
- 1.5 tbsp szechuan peppercorns (optional)
- 1 tsp white peppercorns
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 3-4 inch long cinnamon stick
- 3 pieces of star anise sections/'petals' (note: NOT the whole star anise)
- 6 cloves
- 2 stalks of white portion of spring onion
- 3 dried chillies with all seeds removed
- 2 coin-sized pieces of tangerine peel (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a pot, let boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

(3) Braising Method for Chicken

Blanch chicken/chicken thighs in hot boiling water, to get rid of blood and impurities.  You can skip this step if you are lazy, but it will mean that grey scum will form on the master sauce when you are braising the chicken, which you will have to skim away periodically. I find that even more tedious.

After blanching, wash chicken briefly with plain water to clean it of blood etc.

Bring Master Sauce to a boil, then lower whole chicken into the master sauce and simmer (without lid) for 10 minutes.  After that, cover with lid, switch off heat and let residual heat cook it for 30 minutes. To test for doneness, wiggle chicken thigh - if it is stiff it is not cooked through, but if feels like it will come apart from the joint then it is cooked.  (Note: 30 minutes is a guide lah. Timing will vary according to the size of the chicken.)

(If using chicken thighs instead of whole chicken, the cooking time will be less. Simmer for 8 minutes and then cover for 25-30 minutes)

Let chicken cool before chopping into pieces. I like to debone the thigh and drumsticks, flatten the meat with the side of cleaver (like you see hawkers do), and then chop into strips.  Make sure you chop with a heavy cleaver, so that the skin will stay on the meat.  Don't slice, if you slice, the nice oily skin will slide away and you will have a hard time trying to arrange them back on the meat ;)

Serve with cucumbers on top of chicken rice type rice, and ladle hot master sauce over. Or my favourite: on a bed of egg noodles, with blanched choy sum on the side, and ladle hot master sauce all over.

4) Braising Method for Eggs, Tau Kwa, Chicken Feet

Eggs: Prepare hard-boiled eggs, and shell them. Soak in warm master sauce for 30 minutes or until it reaches desired level of darkness.  You can put the eggs in together to soak with the chicken if you have space in the pot.

Tau Kwa: Simmer in master sauce until soft, then let sit in sauce for 15 minutes so that it will darken.

Chicken Feet: Simmer in a portion of master sauce until soft. As this takes a long time, you may have to top up with hot water occasionally when the water level goes down (because if the sauce boils down too much it will be too thick and the chicken feet will be too salty)

5) Storage Method for Master Sauce

Boil down the Master Sauce until it is of a volume that you can store conveniently (I like to boil down to about 400-500ml).  It will be quite thick and sticky at this point. Strain the Master Sauce through a very fine sieve or a piece of muslin cloth to remove all spices, impurities, etc. Divide into portions if required, and then freeze.

Next time you need to braise chicken/duck/eggs etc, take out the portion you need, dilute accordingly with water, and then use. After that you can boil down and store it again.  Master Sauce gets better with repeated use, and some famous hawker stalls apparently have used the same master sauce for years, jealously guarding it like a culinary treasure! I am quite wary of toxins forming from the repeated boiling and re-using so I certainly wouldn't use the same stock for years, but storage for a few months in the freezer should be more than fine.