Soy Sauce Chicken

Again - pictures to come later. So sorry!

This meal is an absolute favorite and is always a major hit with guests.

Soy Sauce Chicken 

Ingredients:
1 chicken, in pieces (if you want to buy a whole chicken and cut it up yourself - go for it! And don't forget to make Chicken Stock with the remaining bits of the carcass).

2 cups soy sauce (don't have a heart attack - you're not actually consuming 2 cups of soy sauce. That said - get a less dark soy sauce if you can) 

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil (the healthiest you can find) 

4 star anise seeds

4 cloves garlic, sliced

1/2 inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced 

Combine all ingredients expect the chicken in a large pot and stir well. Add the chicken, making sure the chicken is mostly covered by the sauce. If it isn't, try a smaller pot. If it's still not mostly covered, consider doing 1.5 times the recipe. Turn on the heat until the sauce comes to a boil. Caution: this sauce will boil over quickly, so keep an eye on this until it reaches a boil. 

Immediately reduce the heat to a simmer and allow to simmer until completely  cooked - usually approx 30 minutes.

To make sure your chicken is done, take the largest piece (usually the breast) and make a deep cut. If the meat is completely white, the chicken is done. Pink meat should be cooked a bit longer. It is fine (and actually good) if some juices still come out of the meat - this means your chicken is still moist! 

I recommend serving with brown or white rice, stirfried veggies of your choosing, and Poppyseed Muffins. 

Couple notes on this recipe: 

* The sauce is delicious poured over rice and stirfried veggies - be sure to fill a little creamer with some sauce and serve it alongside dinner. 

* The sauce also freezes marvelously and can be used in the future when repeating this recipe. As a bonus, all the oil and fat rises to the top once the sauce has chilled or frozen and can be easily scraped off - which is what I do. The sauce just gets healthier! 

* It may be easier to find Anise seeds instead of the Star Anise - in this case, substitute 2 tsp crushed anise seed for what is called for in this recipe. The link above gives more substitution options, as well. 

Enjoy!!