delicious recipes from a messy kitchen

Let me be clear. This is not my mother’s recipe for soy sauce chicken. My mother’s recipe, like every Chinese mother’s soy sauce chicken, every Jewish mother’s matzo ball soup, and every North American mother’s chicken noodle casserole, is perfect. It involves a whole chicken, slowly braised in a cauldron of soy sauce spiked with ginger, garlic and mysterious spices. It involves neatly and expertly parceling the chicken- bones and all- into perfect, even pieces with a cleaver. It has never involved ginger scallion sauce, as this was saved for her equally perfect, equally impossible to achieve, Hainanese chicken instead.

My recipe for soy sauce chicken, on the other hand, is unabashedly inauthentic. It involves searing individual chicken breasts at a high heat so they stay moist and flavourful, almost in spite of themselves. It does not involve any cleavers, because quite frankly, I am scared of sharp objects. It involves a ginger scallion sauce that is nowhere near my mother’s… but is enticingly fragrant.

This girl’s soy sauce chicken recipe might not be perfect like mom’s, but evokes a taste of home still the same.

{RECIPE} SOY SAUCE CHICKEN WITH GINGER SCALLION SAUCE

{MAKES} 4 servings

{INGREDIENTS}

Chicken:

4 chicken breasts, skin-on and bone-in for flavor
scattering of salt
2 TB canola oil
2 thick slices of ginger, slivered
2 cloves garlic, slivered
¼ C soy sauce
¼ C scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish

Ginger Scallion Sauce:
¾ C scallions, thinly sliced
¼ C ginger, finely diced
3 TB Kosher salt
¼ C canola oil

{DIRECTIONS}

one. Preheat oven to 450 degrees (F).

two. In a large, oven-proof skillet big enough to hold chicken breasts in one layer, heat 2 TB canola oil over high heat. Toss in two slices of slivered ginger, two cloves of slivered garlic. (Sorry, mom, no wok this time!)

three. Sprinkle the chicken breasts with  a scattering of salt. When the oil is fragrant, add the breasts, skin side down. Sear, uncovered, for about 3 minutes on each side.

four. Add ¼ C of soy sauce to the pan. Next come enticing sizzles and messy splatters.  Flip breasts so they are skin side down and transfer pan to the oven. Leave uncovered, and baste occasionally for 15 to 30 minutes or until juices run clear. Remove pan from oven and cover to keep warm.

five. For the ginger scallion sauce: finely slice the scallions, then dice the ginger into teeny-tiny piece. (Tip: Dice until you THINK your ginger is teeny tiny… then keep going.) Toss with salt in a heat-proof bowl.

six. Heat ¼ cup of oil over high heat in a pan on the stove. When it is extremely hot, pour over the ginger, scallion and salt mixture for more enticing sizzles and messy splatters.

seven. To serve, remove chicken breasts from soy mixture, reserving the sauce.  Use a sharp knife to remove breast from the bone, then cut each breast crosswise on a slant into ½ inch thick slices.

eight. Pour reserved soy sauce into a small dipping bowl. Pour ginger scallion sauce into a second small dipping bowl.

nine. Serve with steamed rice and Asian vegetables. Tastiest if eaten with chopsticks.

{AN ORIGINAL RECIPE FROM THE MESSY KITCHEN}

Tags: asian, chicken, sauce