Sticky Chinese Chicken

This is one super easy, delicious dish! Zoe, my baking buddy is hosting a blog-hop, "Cook Like A Star", featuring Donna Hay as the celebrity chef for the month of March. This is the second recipe of Donna Hay's that I've tried and so far I liked them both.

This is an easy dish to prepare. Just marinate the chicken with the ingredients and baked it in the oven, that's all. Be sure to taste your marinade before marinating the chicken. After whisking the ingredients together, try for yourself how sweet and salty you want it to be. I find that 1 tablespoon of brown sugar is not enough and added about 2 tablespoons more. And adjust the soy sauce according to your taste. The mixture should be sweet and salty. 

I did as what the recipes says, baked it in a covered baking dish for one hour until tender. I covered it with aluminium foil since my dish do not have any tight-fitting cover and when one hour was up, the chicken is not brown and sticky! It is all cooked up and tender, but not brown and sticky, so pale looking and does not look so appetizing! But it does smell wonderful, the fragrance from the star anise and five spice powder. I moved the dish up a level in my oven, remove the aluminium foil and grilled it for about 3 to 4 minutes, I can see that it is  turning brown, but definitely not sticky, in fact it looked so soupy, as in the picture above!  I then remove the dish from the oven, the gravy is really bubbling hot! I added in some cornstarch solution (dissolved some cornstarch in water first), stir it in, coat the chicken pieces with the gravy and return it to the oven to grill for another 3 to 4 minutes.

Wow, what a transformation! It is all brown and the gravy has thickened! Looks so delicious! 

And it is delicious! I'm really glad that I've tried out this recipe. We had an enjoyable chicken dish for our dinner. Even the last of the gravy was mopped up with a piece of bread!  :)

I'm linking this with "Cook Like A Star" blog-hop featuring Donna Hay as the celebrity for the month of March, hosted by my friend, Zoe of Bake For Happy Kids. Please drop by Bake For Happy Kids for the full details and join in the blog-hop!

 

Sticky Chinese Chicken
(source : Donna Hay, here)

1 small piece ginger, peeled and sliced (grated)

2 cloves garlic, sliced  (minced finely)

1/4 teaspoon five spice powder

3 star anise

1 tablespoon brown sugar (I use about 3 tablespoons)

1/2 cup (125ml) soy sauce (to taste)

1 cup (250ml) chicken stock

1/4 cup (60ml) oyster sauce 

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces

steamed rice, to serve

Preheat oven to 200C (390F). Place the ginger, garlic, five spice, star anise, sugar, soy, stock and oyster sauce in a small bowl and whisk until well combined. Place the chicken in an ovenproof dish, pour over the ginger mixture, cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook for 1 hour or until tender. Serve with rice. Serves 6.