Oh, drunken chicken, how I love thee! Chinese drunken chicken, that is.
If you’ve never heard of Drunken Chicken, it’s a dish of chicken that’s been soaked in Shaoxing wine—an ingredient that’s been used on this blog many, many times. It’s a contributing ingredient to so many Chinese dishes.
Chinese drunken Chicken is usually and appetizer eaten cold or at room temperature and most common among Shanghai Cuisine. It’s delicate in flavor and taste with the Shaoxing wine providing the main flavor so it is important to get a good quality Shaoxing wine for this Chinese Drunken chicken recipe.
Another cold appetizer that you should try is is Drool worthy Chicken or Kou Shui Ji which is as one of thewoksoflife clan’s favorites.
Shaoxing (绍兴) is a city in Zhejiang province with over 2500 years of history and a very famous rice wine. Shaoxing wine really refines and enriches the flavor of many dishes, especially when preparing meats like chicken. Drunken Chicken is a great representation of Shaoxing wine’s true essence.
Usually, this Drunken Chicken recipe calls for a few interesting ingredients, like angelica root, red dates, and wolfberries (aka goji berries). These all have certain medicinal qualities, and I decided to leave them out–except for the goji berries, which are a super food that’s much easier to find these days.
Okay, here we go. You’ll need:
Drunken Chicken: Recipe Instructions
Stage 1: Preparing the Chicken & Stock
Debone the chicken leg quarters, keeping the skin on. Keep the bones to make a homemade stock, which you’ll be using in this recipe. You might be able to ask your butcher to help you with this step!
In a small pot, add your reserved chicken bones, 2 ½ cups water, and ginger. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for at least 1 hour (or longer). We’ll need 1 ½ cups of chicken broth for the recipe. You can also eliminate this step if you want to use store-bought chicken stock.
Rinse off your de-boned chicken and pat thoroughly dry with a paper towel. Grab 2 pieces of aluminum foil, each about 12” long. Lay each piece of chicken onto a piece of foil, and sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon salt.
Roll up the chicken lengthwise…
And wrap up the chicken in the foil, twisting both sides to form a candy-like bundle.
Steam the chicken in the foil over high heat for 20 minutes, covered. Turn off the heat and let the chicken sit in the steamer for another 5 minutes with the lid tightly closed.
Transfer the foil wrapped chicken to an ice bath, and let it sit there for 10-15 minutes, until the chicken is completely cool. This step ensures that the juices remain locked in and improves the chicken’s overall texture.
For Stage 2: The Brine
Now it’s time to make the brine. In a non-reactive container (I used a glass loaf pan. Anything narrow and deep, where the chicken can remain submerged, will work), add the 1 ½ cups Chicken broth, 1 ½ cups Shaoxing huadiao wine, sugar, salt, and goji berries.
Once the chicken is cool, unwrap the chicken and place in the brine. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours. Slice and serve cold or at room temperature. This Chinese drunken chicken dish is usually served as a cold appetizer. Remember to store the chicken in the brine until serving and use clean utensil whenever coming contact with the brine and chicken. Consume the chicken within 3 days.
Note: We did this dish with equal parts wine and broth. You can change the ratio according to your own tastes, whether you like a stronger or lighter wine taste. But beware…upping the ratio of wine can make the chicken bitter, so proceed with caution.
Chinese Drunken Chicken
Ingredients
For Stage 1: Preparing the Chicken & Stock
- 2 chicken leg quarters
- 2 ½ cups water
- 2 large slices ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For Stage 2: The Brine
- 1 ½ cups of your homemade Chicken broth (at room temperature)
- 1 1/2 cups shaoxing huadiao wine (绍兴花雕酒)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 tablespoon dried goji berries/wolfberries
Instructions
- Debone the chicken leg quarters, keeping the skin on. Keep the bones to make a homemade stock, which you’ll be using in this recipe. You might be able to ask your butcher to help you with this step!
- In a small pot, add your reserved chicken bones, 2 ½ cups water, and ginger. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for at least 1 hour (or longer). We’ll need 1 ½ cups of chicken broth for the recipe. You can also eliminate this step if you want to use store-bought chicken stock.
- Rinse off your de-boned chicken and pat thoroughly dry with a paper towel. Grab 2 pieces of aluminum foil, each about 12” long. Lay each piece of chicken onto a piece of foil, and sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon salt. Roll up the chicken lengthwise, and then wrap in the foil, twisting both sides to form a candy-like bundle.
- Steam the chicken in the foil over high heat for 20 minutes, covered. Turn off the heat and let the chicken sit in the steamer for another 5 minutes with the lid tightly closed.
- Transfer the foil wrapped chicken to an ice bath, and let it sit there for 10-15 minutes, until the chicken is completely cool. This step ensures that the juices remain locked in and improves the chicken’s overall texture.
- Now it’s time to make the brine. In a non-reactive container (I used a glass loaf pan. Anything narrow and deep, where the chicken can remain submerged, will work), add the 1 ½ cups chicken broth, 1 ½ cups shaoxing wine, sugar, salt, and goji berries. Once the chicken is cool, unwrap the chicken and place in the brine. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.v
- Slice and serve cold or at room temperature. This dish is usually served as a cold appetizer. Remember to store the chicken in the brine until serving and use clean utensil whenever coming contact with the brine and chicken. Consume the chicken within 3 days.
- Note: We did this dish with equal parts wine and broth. You can change the ratio according to your own tastes, whether you like a stronger or lighter wine taste. But beware…upping the ratio of wine can make the chicken bitter, so proceed with caution.
nutrition facts
Simple and beautiful. I’ve used less than equal parts of wine to broth and consumed it in less than 24 hours even thou it did sit overnight in the fridge. Lovely, 5 chicken thigh all sold out. Can I actually re-use the brine for the next batch of chicken if I make it again within the next week?
Yes, you can, but you should freeze the brine until you re-use it again.
i need this lol
Me too, I love it :-)
I want to surprise my husband with drunken chicken. I just realize that I bought Shaoxing Cooking Wine whereas your recipe calls for Shaoxing Huadiao Wine. Am I able to substitute and use what I already have? If I can’t substitute, where can I buy Shaoxing Huadiao Wine? I love everything about your website. Wish you and your family has a show on the Food Network station.
Hi Mary, a higher quality Shaoxing wine (we buy one that’s aged 3 years) is more ideal for this recipe.
Where do I buy the Shaoxing Wine? Would the wine be sold at Chinese supermarket or a liquor store.
Hi Mary, they are sold in Chinese supermarkets. Hua Diao in Chinese is “花雕“. Hope you can find it :-)
I just made this last night, excited to taste it tonight! Quick question: Is there a way to reuse the stock/brine? Do you think I could freeze it after removing the chicken and use it again another time? Don’t wanna waste all that gorgeous flavour.
Thanks for this website, love making your recipes!
X
Hi Jeff, don’t boil the brine, as the heat will get rid of the alcohol. You can use it for braised meats dishes, or Braised Beef Noodle Soup (红烧牛肉面). Generally, you can use it for any braised dish.
I have finally found some salt free Shaoxing wine, and I was going to use it for this recipe. I assume that you used the regular salty Shaoxing that we get stateside, so my question is: Should I add more salt elsewhere in the recipe to make for the absence of sodium in the wine?
Hi Thos, not knowing what you’ve bought, I want to point out that the alcohol level in a salt-free Shaoxing wine might be higher than regular cooking Shaoxing wine. BTW, there is relatively little salt in Shaoxing wine. There is no need to adjust salt level.
Hi Judy,
I’m wondering how I could adjust your recipe to cook a whole chicken? My mom does it at least once a year but I don’t remember how she does it and would love to surprise her with this on a special occasion like Thanksgiving.
Hi Kary, this is what you do:
1st, make double or triple batches of the brine.
2nd, cook a whole chicken using our Bai Qie Ji recipe.
3) Once both the brine and the cooked chicken are cooled completely, cut the chicken in half and submerge the chicken halves in the brine. For the rest, you can follow the recipe.
Good luck! Hope your mom approves it :-)
I made the whole chicken and cut it up first and the. Put that in the brine. Should I adjust the soak time in the fridge?
Thanks for the recipe, came out succulent tender and juicy and full of aroma from the wine and chicken stock. Please suggest how to store if we cannot finish, leave in brine?
You are very welcome, Pacichat! Yes, leave the leftovers in the brine and make sure to use clean utensils when coming in contact with the brine and chicken.
You know it’s lip-smackingly good when request coming in for this to be serve again on our family reunion dinner :)
Thank you, Judy… for the simple, easy to prep yet so yummy drunken chicken.. and oh.. i did add a splash or two whiskey in it.. hehehe
Good going, Ying, I mean the whiskey ;-)
This dish was voted best tasting dish at a recent potluck dinner. Very simple and straight forward directions make this a keeper recipe!
Wow, thank you for such a nice compliment, Jeremy! :-)