Chinese · Cantonese · main

Soy Sauce Chicken (See Yau Gai)

Soy Sauce Chicken (See Yau Gai) reads umami 6.8, salinity 6.2 and sweetness 5.3 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Chinese · Cantonese main, about 1 hr 35 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 6.8 · Salinity 6.2 · Sweetness 5.3 · Warm Spice 4.9 · Funk & Ferment 3.8 · Nutty 3.2 · Richness 3.1 · Allium 2.7 · Herbaceous 2.1 · Floral 1.6 · Citrus 1.4 · Bitterness 1.0 · Earthy 0.9 · Sourness 0.7 · Fruity 0.7

What's in it (14)

Time & effort: about 1 hr 35 min (1 hr 20 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 63.9 kcal, 3.4 g protein, 2 g fat, 10 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (6 steps)

  1. Rinse the chicken and pat it dry inside and out, then rub the cavity with the salt.
  2. Bring everything except the chicken and sesame oil to the boil in a pot just wide enough to hold the bird, then simmer 20 minutes for the spices to open up. Taste the master liquid: it should read salty, then sweet, then aromatic, in that order.
  3. Lower the chicken in breast-down, holding it by the legs and dipping it three times so the cavity fills with hot liquid, then let it settle. Top up with hot water if the bird is not three-quarters covered.
  4. Bring back barely to the boil, then drop the heat until the surface only shivers with no bubbles breaking. Poach 25 minutes, turning the bird once, then turn off the heat, cover and leave it in the liquid another 25 to 30 minutes. The thigh juices should run clear and the meat next to the thigh bone should be only faintly rosy. A rolling boil at any point tears the skin and toughens the breast.
  5. Lift the chicken out and brush it all over with sesame oil while still warm, which is what gives the lacquered mahogany finish. Rest 15 minutes, then chop through the bone into 2 cm pieces and rebuild the bird on the plate. Spoon over a few tablespoons of the strained liquid.
  6. Cool, strain and freeze the rest of the liquid. It is a lou seui, a master stock, and it improves every time you cook in it.

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Keep reading: what umami, salinity, sweetness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.