Very Easy 6-Ingredient Shanghai Chicken

If you can boil water, you can make this dish.  This very easy 6 ingredient Shanghai Chicken can be served hot or at room temperature and makes for a homey chicken dish all year round.

Roast chicken may rule American households, but this chicken rules the roost in Chinese ones.  Serve with a side of Make Ahead Chinese Chilled Broccoli or stress-relieving Smashed Cucumbers.

The secret spice

Spiced with star anise and cinnamon, this is a classic Chinese chicken braise.

The star anise gives it a very characteristic herbal, almost medicinal scent and flavor that you won’t miss.

Also known as “red cooked,” this braise has 2 styles:

1. Lu – more liquid, longer braising time
2. Hong Shao – less liquid, quick cooking

Since this recipe is for a whole chicken, it would be Lu style.

The trick though is not to overcook the chicken, else the breast meat will get dry.

The moist heat from gently simmering the chicken for an hour will keep the chicken breast very juicy.

Season with just 5 ingredients

This recipe keeps it very basic with just the main 5 seasoning ingredients for the master stock:

1. Soy sauce
2. Chinese Rice Wine
3. Sugar
4. Star Anise
5. Cinnamon stick

Five ingredients plus chicken and water make 6 ingredients in total.

You will also need water but assuming you already have that.

Variations on Master Stock for Shanghai Chicken

Other items you could add to this stock  if you have them are:

• a knob of ginger
• 2-3 ea green onion
• a couple slices of dried, aged tangerine peel
• substitute 2 Tb of soy sauce with dark soy sauce
• substitute the sugar with rock sugar, a cleaner, non-refined sugar
• a handful of dried red dates
• 4-5 dried shitake mushrooms
• a cup of chestnuts, peeled
• a can of bamboo shoots or fresh if you can find them
• a couple pieces of red fermented tofu
• 5-6 dried red chiles
• Any of other 5-spice ingredients – fennel, cloves, and Szechuan peppercorns

Any of above would be more than welcome in the pot, but this recipe keeps it very basic.

How to make easy Shanghai Chicken

Step 1: Put everything in a pot

Mix together the master stock ingredients.

It has to be thinned with water to make enough liquid to braise the chicken and reduce the saltiness of the soy sauce.

In this recipe, the liquid will only come halfway up the chicken.

That may seem odd, but it’s simply so you don’t have too much excess liquid leftover that you may or may not use again.

Step 2: Bring to a simmer

Cook for 30 minutes, covered, at a slow simmer.

Boiling would be too aggressive for this gentle bird.

Step 3: Flip the bird (with a fork)

Gently turn the chicken over, so it is breast side up.

We’re flipping the bird, so both sides have equal access to the master stock.

This can be finagled by putting a large fork inside the cavity and turning it over without damaging the skin too much.

Cook for another 30 minutes, at a slow simmer, covered.

Step 4: Cool and Carve

After an hour of simmering, the chicken should be cooked.

You can stick a thermometer the bird in the thickest part of the thigh to check for a temperature of 160 degrees F.

Remove from the liquid, and cool a bit so it’s easier to handle.

Carving the bird may be the most difficult part of an otherwise easy chicken recipe.

If you prefer not to carve, you could use bone-in chicken parts already cut up instead.  In that case, reduce cooking time to 30-40 minutes.

What to do with the leftover liquid

The master stock or leftover liquid can be used over and over again to braise other proteins such as:

• Pork belly
• Beef – chuck roast, banana shanks, or any stew meat
• Chicken wings
• Chicken drumsticks and thighs
• Chicken offal – liver, gizzards, and kidneys taste really good in this sauce
• Peanuts – either raw or in the shell for a salty/sweet snack
• Firm Tofu
• Peeled, hardboiled eggs

You could even thin the liquid out with some water for soup or soup noodles.

Taiwan Beef Noodle soup uses a very similarly flavored base for the soup.

Why is it named Shanghai Chicken?

This technique and seasoning are common not just to Shanghai and northern China but southeastern China as well.

It is also similar to soy sauce chicken found in many Chinese enclaves around the world.

This recipe is named Shanghai Chicken because it has a bit of sweetness characteristic of Shanghai cuisine.  It is also mildly flavored with no chile or heat.

If you don’t like wet chicken skin

This is a very traditional dish to serve with the skin on.

However, since this is a braise, the skin sadly never gets crispy.

To make this lower fat and to avoid flabby chicken skin, you can just as well remove the skin or use some skinless, bone-in chicken legs.

With just 6 ingredients plus water, this easy Shanghai chicken may be just the bird you’ve been looking for to spice up your next dinner.

Tips to make it better @home

1. If you prefer to use already cut up chicken parts, reduce cooking time to 30-40 minutes, and flip chicken halfway through cooking.
2. Remove the chicken skin prior to cooking if you don’t like wet chicken skin.
3. Add dark soy sauce if you’d like a more mahogany-colored chicken.
4. Other lovely additions to this braise are ginger, green onion, chestnuts, dried shitake mushrooms, and/or dried red chiles.
5. Serve hot or make ahead to serve cold on the buffet table.

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