the Cantonese soy sauce chicken: a whole bird poached below a simmer in a master stock led by star anise, turned once, then rested in the liquid until the flesh is set and the skin lacquered
Origin: Guangdong, China
From the journey of Star Anise.
Soy sauce chicken is one of the dishes hanging in the window of every Cantonese roast-meat shop, glossy mahogany beside the char siu and the roast duck, and it is the simplest thing in the window to make and the hardest to make well. There is no roasting involved at all: the bird is poached in a dark, sweet, aromatic master stock, and everything depends on the stock and on the temperature. Star anise is the leading aromatic and the one a diner identifies. Cantonese braising has a settled cast of spices, and the four that matter most are star anise, cassia, dried tangerine peel, and cǎo guǒ; of those, star anise is the loudest and the one that reads as the smell of a roast-meat shop. The stock itself is a lǔ shuǐ, kept and reused, and a shop's stock may be decades old, deepening with every bird that passes through it. The technique is the whole dish. The liquid must never boil. A boiled chicken toughens, the skin splits and shrinks away from the flesh, and the meat goes stringy at the breast before the thigh is done. Held just below a simmer and then left to sit in the cooling stock, the bird finishes gently in residual heat and comes out with the flesh barely set, the bone still faintly pink at the joint, and the skin taut and glossy. Cantonese cooks regard slightly underdone at the bone as correct rather than as a fault.
Star anise is the defining aroma and the quantity here is deliberate; six stars to a bird is not excessive. The stock is a lǔ shuǐ and should be kept: strain it, boil it hard for two minutes, cool it quickly, and refrigerate or freeze, topping up with soy, wine, and sugar at each use. It improves indefinitely and is equally good for duck, pork belly, beef shin, eggs, and firm tofu. Rock sugar gives a cleaner sweetness and a better gloss than granulated. For a gluten-free version use tamari in place of both soy sauces. Serve with plain rice and a dish of ginger and spring onion oil.
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