Star Anise Chicken

This recipe torn off a magazine and filed into my recipe folder so that I will give it a go one day. It looks really yum and was supposed to be served with gingered red cabbage, which I did not attempt.

1 cup "ABC" kecap manis
1 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 star anise
2 tbsp chinese rice wine (or chinese cooking Hua Diao wine)
2 garlic cloves, bruised
2-3cm pc ginger, thickly sliced
8 chicken thigh cutlets, with skin on and bone in (I use chicken thigh fillets without skin and bone)

Original method
Preheat oven to 180C. Place kecap manis, soy, sugar, star anise, rice wine, garlic, ginger and 1 cup (250ml) of water in a large flame-proof casserole. Bring it to the boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the chicken pieces, skin-side down. As soon as it boils again, cover and place in oven for 30 mins or until chicken is cooked*.

Remove from oven and leave to cool for 20 mins, then transfer onto a plate. If you like, you can put a little of the braising liquid in a small pan and boil it over hight heat until it forms a syrupy glaze to brush over chicken.

In my fry pan... garlic, ginger, star anise in the sauce

My method - how I did it today

I do not have a flame-proof casserole and so I used a Pyrex glass oven-proof casserole dish.

Preheat oven to 180C and place the empty casserole dish in the oven to warm it up. Place half the amount (I only cooked 5 pieces of chicken thigh fillets) of kecap manis, soy, sugar, star anise, rice wine, garlic, ginger and 1/2 cup of water in a fry pan. Bring to the boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the chicken thigh fillets into the pan. When it returns to the boil, transfer the chicken and sauce into the warmed glass casserole, cover it with al foil and place in oven for 15 mins (my oven is hotter than usual hence a shorter time) or until chicken is cooked.

Remove from oven and leave to cool for 10-15 mins and dig in! Yums!

On hindsight, I might not need to cook the chicken in the oven. I will try to either cook it over the stove and simmer and then bathe the chicken with the braising liquid often. Alternatively I might use the thermal cooker to cook it further for another 20 mins or so.

You can keep the remaining braising liquid (leave out the garlic, ginger and star anise) for future use. You just need to braise a new batch of meat in the liquid. Place it in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze it for no longer than a month to use. Scoop out the excess fat on top before you.

I will definitely try this recipe again. Quop really love this and I think this has a good chance of making it to our "all-time favourites" list. He happily ate a huge bowl of rice for dinner tonight because of this dish! :)