Hua Diao Chicken
A traditional Cantonese specialty, this Hua Diao chicken is braised repeatedly eight times to produce amber-colored meat with a rich, savory flavor.
Ingredients
Whole chicken (cleaned)
1 (1250g)
Honey (for brushing on chicken skin)
30g
Pork fat (cut into thin slices, to line the pan bottom)
75g
Oyster sauce (part for brushing chicken skin, part for sauce)
50g
Ginger (in chunks)
35g
Hua Diao wine (Shaoxing wine)
100g
Scallion stalks
35g
Light secondary broth (for the sauce)
125g
MSG (for the sauce)
5g
Instructions
1
Initial Preparation
Clean the chicken and blanch it in a pot of boiling water for about 2 minutes. Remove, clean off any down and impurities, then blanch again, take out, and allow the skin to dry. First brush the oyster sauce onto the skin, then brush on the honey. Cut the pork fat into thin slices. Combine the remaining oyster sauce, honey, MSG, and secondary broth in a bowl to make the sauce.
2
Pan-frying and Braising
Heat a wok over high heat, place the pork fat slices on the bottom of the pan, and fry until fat renders out. Then lay the chicken on its side on top of the pork. Fry until the legs and wings on both sides turn slightly golden, add ginger and scallions and stir to combine, then add the Hua Diao wine, briefly fry, pour in the sauce, cover, and bring to a boil over high heat. Immediately remove from the heat; once the temperature drops slightly, return it to the heat. Repeat this process 8 times, turning the chicken 3 times in between—each time one side is braised, the pot is removed from the heat twice. This repeated braising and roasting takes about 12 minutes. After the final removal from the heat, wait 3 minutes before lifting the lid. Discard the ginger, scallions, and rendered pork scraps. Take out the chicken, cut it into pieces, arrange them into the shape of a chicken on a serving plate, and drizzle the original sauce over the top to finish.
