A super simple but still delicious version of the most popular recipe on my website (Chinatown soya sauce chicken): made in one-pot, this Easy Chinese Braised Soy Sauce Chicken Thighs Recipe is really easy but still tastes impressive. It's mostly passive cooking as the chicken thighs are left to simmer on the stove and done in ⅓ the time!
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My Cantonese Chinatown soy sauce whole chicken recipe- developed after eating soy sauce chicken for weeks and dissecting 4 other recipes in a test kitchen approach- was so popular it became the top visited post on my blot after just ONE DAY!
As most of us- myself included- don't often have the time to prepare a dish 2.5 or so hours (1.5 hour cooking time + 1 hour just leaving the chicken in the hot soya sauce) in advance, I decided to make this Easy Cantonese Soy Sauce Chicken Thighs recipe for busy weekday dinners!
Note: this cooking method was inspired by Red House Spice (but my ingredient ratios and the final taste is totally different. The resulting dish is SUPER fragrant thanks to the liberal usage of Chinese rose wine. I'm normally not a huge fan of chicken skin if it's not fried but I couldn't help downing this one as it was so smooth and aromatic!)
⭐ Why make this
- Fuss free: made in one-pot and no need to constantly fiddle with the stove setting. You can go do other stuff whilst the tender chicken cooks in the braising sauce! Perfect for when you need to make a whole variety of dishes e.g. during Chinese New Year.
- No risk of burns: gets rid of the need to lift the bird in and out of the boiling sauce, so no risk of anything falling and splashing you.
- Relatively quick: only takes 35-50 minutes in comparison to the 2.5 hours my traditional soy sauce chicken recipe does (i.e. ⅓ the time! The time taken depends on the size of your thighs.)
- Delicious: the higher concentration of Chinese wine makes it more fragrant than the usual soy sauce chicken. If you like Chinese cuisine, you'll love this dish on your dinner table!
Note: the texture can not compare to a properly poached chicken as done in my original recipe but these chicken thighs are nonetheless very silky and tender! Save the 2.5 hour recipe for special occasions!
🐓 Ingredients
You will need a few simple ingredients:
- Chicken thighs: fresh tastes better than frozen (better texture) but I'll be the 1st to own up and say 99.9% of the time, I cook with frozen dark meat. (Use bone-in chicken.)
- Fresh Ginger
- Star anise and bay leaves: If you don't have star anise, use a pinch of 5-spice powder instead (not too much as the key flavour is the rose wine and we don't want to overwhelm it. For keen cooks, here's a recipe for homemade 5 spice powder) (Don't use Indian bay leaf- it's not the same thing! If you shop at an ethnic grocery, Indian bay leaf is sometimes simply labelled bay leaf so it's easy to get confused. Check the veins on the leaf- regular bay leaves have their veins running to the main central vein, forming a Y-shape whilst Indian bay leaves have all the veins parallel to the central one.)
- Dark and light soy sauce: Use good brands such as Lee Kum Kee. You may have noticed that the color of my whole soy sauce chicken and these chicken thighs are different. It's because slightly less dark soy sauce was used here and also because I used different brands (they don't have the same formulation and thus are different in color/ taste -> so remember to taste first!) A good substitute for dark soy is Kicap Manis/ sweet soy sauce but remember to go easy on the sugar!
- Granulated white sugar: if you want, you can use rock sugar instead but that takes more time as you may have to pound down the huge clumps
- Chinese rose wine (meikweilu): you can use Shaoxing rice wine instead. (I did that today.) It'll taste good but it won't have that beautiful aromatic fragrance that rose wine does! I've made this recipe with a mix of rose and shaoxing wine (in the ratio of 7:1 and it worked very well)
Note: For more recipes where soy sauce is the star, try these butter and soy king oyster mushrooms.
🧾 Step-by-Step Instructions
1a. Let your chicken come to room temperature (about 15-30 minutes) and don't cook it right out of the fridge! (This improves the texture of the final dish.)
1b. Add all the ingredients to a pot. Make sure at least ¾ of the chicken is in the sauce. If not, you need a smaller pot!
1c. Bring to the boil on medium-high heat. Stir till all the sugar is dissolved.
1d. Let the chicken simmer on low heat or medium heat till cooked. (You want small bubbles not large ones.)
2a. Around the 20-30 minutes mark (20 for small and 30 for larger thighs), flip the chicken and simmer for 10 more minutes.
2b. Cut the thickest part of the chicken and if the juices run clear, it's cooked! (If not, cook for some more.)
2c. Serve with noodles or steamed rice and cucumber salad! (Remember to remove all the thighs from the sauce so that they don't overcook. You can also glaze the skin with some oil for more gloss.
Tip: Stir the sauce before ladling a bit over the rice or noodles. (Taste first as the sauce can be salty though the chicken is perfectly seasoned.)
Note: See FAQ for cooking times for other cuts.
🥢 How to Serve
- The sauce is so good, it's terrific stir-fried kailan or bok choy and rice or noodles on the side. Note that the sauce is rather salty- we need it that way so that the flavor can travel into the meat in the short cooking time- so taste first and drizzle sparingly.
- If you don't want such a salty sauce, add some water, stir and bring to a boil AFTER you take the chicken out. (Taste and see before you add water as everyone has a different salt tolerance.)
- It's quite a thin sauce and totally reminded me of eating Cantonese Soy Sauce Chicken with rice at hawker centres
- If you want a thicker sauce, add in chicken feet/ wings to simmer with the sauce (they add gelatin) OR add a bit of cornstarch at the end.
- Depending on how fat your meat is, there may be quite a bit of oil floating on the sauce so give it a stir before spooning it out. (Fat is a flavour carrier, so don't hate it!)
- Soy Sauce Chicken Thighs can also be eaten with some baked or grilled vegetables at the side. (aka Western style)
- In Singapore and Malaysia, people eat Cantonese soy sauce chicken with rice and spicy sambal chilli- very different from how it's eaten in Hong Kong!
👩 Expert Tips
Tip #1: If you're picky about meat texture, don't leave extra thighs in the hot soy sauce mixture after you switch off the fire, as they'll continue cooking and become less tender.
Tip #2: If possible, use thighs that are about the same size, if not they'll cook at different rates and the meat of some will be a bit less moist than the others. (Mine weighed about 125g-175g per thigh for 50 minutes and 35 minutes for 100-150g.)
Tip #3: if you want an extra attractive chicken, you can glaze the cooked thigh with some neutral oil or sesame oil to make the skin glossier, but I honestly don't think it needs it!
Tip #4: You can add some extras to braise in the savory sauce, such as hard boiled eggs and tofu. Just don't add too much and overcrowd the pot. Also remember that the chickens should be immersed in the sauce, so these extra ingredients should be on top of the chicken and not below! (Some people add dried shiitake mushrooms but I find the flavor can overpower the sauce so don't recommend it here.)
🥡 How to Store
Extras can be stored in the braising liquid in an airtight container in the fridge. The chicken pieces will continue to marinade in the sauce and become even more flavorful!
Reheating
The Unique Selling Point of Chinese Chicken in Soy Sauce is its smooth and silky texture so you never want to cook it with harsh high heat. When reheating, steaming is the best way to keep the meat tender.
Leftover sauce = master stock
Once you've finished the chicken, sieve the leftover sauce and store it in the fridge for 3 days. If you want to store it longer, freeze it (it freezes well.)
This sauce can then be used to:
- stir fry vegetables or other meats
- fry noodles or rice
- to simmer or poach a 2nd round of chicken legs- they'll only taste better! (You need to add fresh aromatics and spices though.)
- thickened into gravy
- to poach fish or vegetables (carrots would taste great)
- stirred into a risotto- you may need to add some butter or cream here
- Melt some butter, stir in some of this sauce, then thicken to make a meat sauce- great with roast potatoes!
- Add a bit to stock to make ramen soup!
Note: remember to taste for saltiness before doing the above- you may need to water down in some cases.
For more money-saving cooking tips, click here!
💭 Recipe FAQs
To test if the chicken is done, insert a thermometer into the thickest part, near the bone and it should measure 74C (165F). However, to be honest, most Asian families don't keep cooking thermometer! Instead, slice into the thickest part and check the colour of the juices. They should be clear and not pink. If pink, return the thighs to the pot for a bit longer as you don't want food poisoning!
Yes. I've made this with a small whole chicken before (700g) and it was done in the 45-minute time frame. Some smaller chicken thighs were cooked in 35-40 minutes. Red House Spice has also kindly provided timings for other parts, though note I've not tested them:
Chicken Wings: 25 mins
Chicken Drumsticks: 35 mins
Whole legs or leg quarters: 45-50 mins
📋 Suggested Side Dishes
If you're a poultry fan, here are some other chicken recipes that you may be interested, such as pumpkin chicken curry and baked-but-still-crispy fish sauce wings.
Alternatively, here are some Asian sides that go well with this braised chicken dish:
P.S. I've used leftovers in this chicken jook or in 1 of these Leftover roast chicken dishes.
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Easy Chinese Braised Soy Sauce Chicken Thighs
Equipment
- Pot I used a Le Creuset stainless steel pasta pot
- sieve Optional, only if you plan to store the leftover sauce for future use
Ingredients
- 2.2 lb chicken thighs (1kg) Try to use ones that are about the same weight so all the thighs will poach at the same rate. Take out 15-30 min before cooking so it's at room temperature.
- 2 thumbs ginger, slice but no need to peel
- 3 star anise Substitute with a pinch of 5 spice powder if you're out. Don't over do it.
- 2 bay leaves Don't use Indian bay leaves- not the same thing!
- 1⅓ C light soy sauce Not to be confused with sweet soy sauce or kicap manis
- ¾ C Chinese rose wine, meikweilu Sub with Chinese shaoxing, sake or dry sherry but note the final chicken will be nowhere as fragrant (still tasty though!) The rose wine notes are really the star of this recipe- if you prefer to have the light soy sauce dominant, reduce the wine used to ⅜C instead. I highly recommend trying the recipe as it is first though. I don't even drink much and I love this sauce!)
- ¾ C granulated white sugar Feel free to use rock sugar instead but pounding it down to size isn't quick
- 2 T dark soy sauce Not to be confused with sweet soy sauce or kicap manis
- 1.5 C Water I add the water last to wash out any of the sauces that are stuck to the cups- dark soy sauce is particularly sticky!
- Neutral oil to glaze Very optional- I personally don't think it needs it.
- Sambal chilli, to serve Optional: this is South East Asian style not traditional Cantonese Hong Kong style
- Rice or noodles, to serve Optional. See post above on how to eat this dish.
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to the pot. Make sure that at least ¾ of each chicken thigh is submerged in the sauce. If not, your pot is too large.
- Bring to the boil on medium or medium-high heat, stirring for the sugar to dissolve. Don't use high heat as you don't want to shock your chicken and make the meat contract and be tough. (I used heat of 7 on a Bosch induction stove with a maximum fire of 9)
- Once it's boiling, turn down to medium or low heat so that the sauce is at a simmer, uncovered i.e. you see tiny bubbles rising to the top of the sauce. Let it simmer for 20-35 minutes, depending on the size of the thighs. Note after some time, the sauce may end up hot enough and start boiling, so you may want to adjust the heat down. I started with the fire at 5 (Bosch induction stove, maximum 9) and eventually reduced to 2.5-3.
- After 20-35 minutes have passed, flip the chicken and simmer for 10 minutes more then test for doneness- juices should run clear when the thickest part is sliced. I like to slice from underneath so the skin isn't cut and the thighs remain presentable.
- If not done, return to the pot to simmer a bit more.
- If done, remove all the thighs from the pot even if you're not eating them immediately (you don't want them to continue cooking in the pot). Optional glazing with a little oil if you want a glossier skin. Serve with rice or noodles. Stir the sauce before ladling a bit over the rice or noodles. (Taste first as the sauce can be salty though the chicken is perfectly seasoned.)
- I recommend keeping the braising sauce as master sauce- sieve and store in fridge for 3 days or freeze it. There are recipes ideas in the post regarding what to do with the sauce!
Notes
Nutrition
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Zen says
Process shots would help. especially a photo of the brand of soy sauce you use.
Evangelin says
So the first time I made this recipe was 8 Feb. I kept the leftover braising sauce in the freezer and took it out to cook a 2nd round about 2 weeks later (diluted with a bit of water to braise more chicken). Was as awesome as the first time! And then, since I had leftover sauce again, I strained it and popped it back in the freezer! Today, I used about 2 Tbsp of the frozen sauce plus about 3 Tbsp of water and cooked some sliced salmon, shiitake, asparagus and carrots in it. Super delicious! This sauce is literally the gift that keeps giving. Thanks so much for this recipe, Zen!!
Zen says
Thanks for coming back and reviewing again Evangelin! So happy you kept the sauce as a master stock and that it's working well for you. Would never have thought of using it with salmon but can see how it would be super delicious, must try your tip! 🙂
Evangelin says
This recipe is my dream come true! Just one-pot (I am a one-pot girl anytime), but tastes and looks super fancy, like what you would get in a restaurant.. Minimum effort for maximum results! I didn't have rose wine or Bay leaves, so I subbed with shao xing and some Thai basil (lol). It tasted great still! Oh, and I boiled my egg in the sauce with the chicken (in true one-pot style). Was hoping some of the sauce would leak in through the shell but alas. I guess that's a good thing or my egg would be rotten? Haha. It cooked perfectly btw .
The husband was super impressed with his lunch. This is definitely going into my regular recipe repertoire. Gonna save the Gravy and try out some of the other recommended recipes!
Zen says
Thanks Evangelin! So happy you tried and liked the recipe (and helped me test that it works with Thai basil! :P) Great idea to boil the egg in the broth! YOu could always fish them out around the 20 min mark and roll them to crack the shell (like in tea eggs) so some sauce can seep in! Glad the other half liked it!
May says
Made this a couple of days ago. Perfect! No rose wine (I live in Norway) but had some smuggled shao xing that did the trick. I’m Malaysian, missing home like crazy in these times. This went some way to fixing it! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Zen says
Thank you for your kind comment, May, it literally made my week! I am so happy the recipe worked for you and brought you some comfort in Norway. Hopefully, you'll get to travel back soon (My Dad lives in Malaysia too, so I haven't seen him in 2 years, as I'm in Singapore, but the border controls have eased recently.) I used to live in a small village in Scotland so I know how difficult it can be to find Asian ingredients in the West! Another easy recipe to make, since u have shaoxing, is 12345 pork ribs I'll work hard to share more of these easy no fancy ingredient type recipes! 🙂 PS I've always wanted to visit Norway!!
Giangi Townsend says
Looks amazing and with Chinese New Year, what a perfect recipe to try in celebration.
Zen says
Thanks Giangi, will you be celebrating this year?
nancy says
love this classic cantonese dish! thanks
Zen says
Thanks for stopping by Nancy, glad to have shared a recipe you like!
Dawn Conklin says
These chicken thighs are so delicious and easy to make! The family loved them. And the skin is delicious - I never throw the skin away, it's one of my favorite parts of the chicken.
Zen says
Great to hear, Dawn, thank you! So glad your family liked them- haha I must confess I usually only eat chicken skin when fried, or in this recipe!!
Mel says
So delicious and easy. U r right about how fragrant the skin is! Must try your other soy sauce whole chicken recipe to compare
Zen says
yay glad u like it, Mel! the other soy chicken is more tender but i find this one more fragrant, so u could technically scale up this sauce and use it with the cooking method of the other recipe