This red braised chicken recipe (hóngshāo jī, 红烧鸡) is for our readers who can’t eat pork and haven’t been able to try our popular Hong Shao Rou (Shanghai-style red braised pork belly) recipe!
It’s also a great way to cook chicken if you happen to have some chicken thighs in the freezer. I’ll show you how to braise them to a sticky, dark red perfection, with new additions of ginger and scallion—which are both great flavor companions for chicken.
The best part is, this recipe is actually faster to make than our red braised pork belly, because I used boneless skinless chicken thighs. Whereas pork belly takes quite a while to braise, I wanted this recipe to be quick and easy, while still being packed with flavor!
What Does “Red Braised” Mean?
“Red braising” or “red cooking” refers to the Chinese technique of braising ingredients in a mixture of Shaoxing wine, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, and water. The result is a deep amber-colored (or reddish) sauce.
You don’t necessarily have to red cook meat. You can also make red braised fish or red braised bamboo shoots, for instance.
Tips to Successfully Substitute Chicken for Pork
Many of you have asked how to adapt our braised pork belly recipe to use chicken, so this recipe has been a long time coming.
Chicken cooks differently than pork. It doesn’t have as much fat, so you’ll need to help it stay moist. We do that by marinating it in cornstarch and oil (a simpler version of our velveting technique).
While cooking, be sure not to over-sear the chicken, or it will become tough. (Yes, even though it’s dark meat!)
I opted for boneless, skinless chicken thighs, but you could use skin-on chicken thighs to emulate the glistening pork belly skin in a classic hong shao rou. You’ll likely have to buy them on the bone (very few butchers sell boned skin-on chicken thighs), but don’t worry. Sarah has a post on how to de-bone chicken thighs, with a video!
At the end of the cooking time, it is important to reduce the sauce for a more concentrated flavor. Use the highest heat level, and don’t waste the heat that accumulates around the upper half of the wok—stir with a wide range, so the sauce reduces quickly. If you do it right, it shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes.
Don’t skip the dark soy sauce!
It’s very important to the color and flavor of this dish that you have both kinds of soy sauce—light and dark! Just head to your local Asian market, buy a bottle of each, and it will last you a year.
Read more about different types of soy sauce, and check out our article specifically about dark soy sauce.
Red Braised Chicken: Recipe Instructions
Cut chicken into large chunks (about 1½ -inch/4cm pieces). Add the cornstarch and water. Mix well until the chicken has absorbed the water and is evenly coated in the mixture. Then mix in 1 tablespoon of oil. This step will keep the chicken silky and moist during cooking.
Preheat the wok until it starts to smoke lightly (this is to prevent sticking). Reduce the heat to low. Wait a minute or so to lower the wok temperature, then add 3 tablespoons of the oil (or three quarters of the total, if you’ve scaled the recipe up/down) to your wok along with the sugar.
Let the sugar melt, stirring with your spatula. The rock sugar takes longer to melt than granulated sugar—take care not to let it burn. As you do so, stir the oil evenly around the wok.
Increase the heat to medium-high, and add the chicken pieces in a single layer.
Don’t stir until the chicken pieces are lightly browned (about 1 minute)—this is so the chicken has a chance to sear, and to prevent sticking. Flip the chicken pieces to lightly brown them on the other side—1 minute.
Reduce the heat to medium. Add the ginger, Shaoxing wine, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and water. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 8-10 minutes.
If there is still a lot of visible liquid at the end of the cooking time, uncover the wok, turn up the heat, and stir continuously until the liquid reduces to a rich sauce that coats the chicken.
This may take 1-2 minutes or a few more, depending on how hot your stove gets and how close your wok is to the heat source. Mix in the scallion…
And serve!
Red Braised Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or boneless, skin-on chicken thighs)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil (divided)
- 25 g rock sugar (or substitute granulated sugar; 25g = 2 tablespoons)
- 3 slices ginger
- 1/4 cup Shaoxing wine
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
- 1 cup water
- 2 scallions (cut into 2-inch/5cm pieces)
Instructions
- Cut chicken into large chunks (about 1½ -inch/4cm pieces). Add the cornstarch and water. Mix well until the chicken has absorbed the water and is evenly coated in the mixture. Then mix in 1 tablespoon of oil. This step will keep the chicken silky and moist during cooking.
- Preheat the wok until it starts to smoke lightly (this is to prevent sticking). Reduce the heat to low. Wait a minute or so to lower the wok temperature, then add 3 tablespoons of the oil (or three quarters of the total, if you’ve scaled the recipe up/down) to your wok along with the sugar. Let the sugar melt, stirring with your spatula. The rock sugar takes longer to melt than granulated sugar—take care not to let it burn. As you do so, stir the oil evenly around the wok.
- Increase the heat to medium-high, and add the chicken pieces in a single layer. Don’t stir until the chicken pieces are lightly browned (about 1 minute)—this is so the chicken has a chance to sear, and to prevent sticking. Flip the chicken pieces to lightly brown them on the other side—1 minute.
- Reduce the heat to medium. Add the ginger, Shaoxing wine, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and water. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 8-10 minutes.
- If there is still a lot of visible liquid at the end of the cooking time, uncover the wok, turn up the heat, and stir continuously until the liquid reduces to a rich sauce that coats the chicken. This may take 1-2 minutes or a few more, depending on how hot your stove gets and how close your wok is to the heat source. Mix in the chopped scallion and serve!
nutrition facts
Dinnerware!
If you like the bowl we used in this post, check out Musubi Kiln, a company that sources traditional handcrafted tableware from Japanese artisans. It’s worth just checking out a photo of the bowl—it’s so pretty we felt bad covering it with the chicken!
For 5% off your purchase, use coupon code: THEWOKSOFLIFE
Was browsing woks of life looking for some easy recipes for chicken when I came across this red braised chicken. Gave it a shot and it turned out great. Everyone liked it. Even my one year old who is a little wary of most meat so far had no trouble and had 3 helpings. So here I am less than a week later cooking up another batch as meal prep for later this week. I am trying it with some chopped up garlic this time. I added some dried chili’s in the last batch but apparently the next days leftovers picked up a lot more heat. Also a big fan of the fried rice and Mongolian beef recipes here. Slowly trying more recipes out as I get the opportunity.
We have some really yummy recipes awaiting you! :-)
I’m trying to reduce our sugar use, can I omit the sugar or use 1 tbsp instead?
Best not to, Christina. Sugar is the key ingredient to this recipe.
Hi! I tried this recipe tonight and for some reason it really did not come together the way I thought it would. I followed the recipe exactly but in the end my sauce was very very liquidy (like a broth more than a sauce). I took the chicken out so as to not overcook, and reduced the sauce by half, but it was still very thin. I also used all of the ingredients exactly but did not have this beautiful red color. It was still DELICIOUS despite my not quite achieving what I was aiming for. I am using a electric range so maybe I just can’t get the wok to the right heats? Would you happen to have any advice before I try again soon (it was so very good)? All of you’re recipes that I have made have been amazing and I really want to try to nail this one! Thank you for sharing such joy on this site.
Hi Courtney, use half of the water next time since you’re having trouble cooking off the liquid. Just know that a thick bottom pan like cast iron cooks off the liquid much slower than a wok. Cooking tools matter a lot as well as the heat level on your stove.
This was amazing. I’ll adjust a few things next time, as I’m using an electric stove, and the temperature changes (high to low to medium high to medium to high) I think don’t happen quickly enough. I made a 3/4 batch. I’ll probably make half, because a single layer on the chicken was pushing it in my wok.
The granulated sugar got a bit chunky, but it dawned on me that it was a braise, so it was going to dissolve in the long run, anyway, so I just cooked it for a few minutes – it got less chunky, lol – and soldiered on.
Next time, I will try adding the wine/soy sauces/water with the wok still on medium high so it comes up to temp, and then reduce the temperature, again, because of the electric stove. Most of the liquid seemed to remain after the braise, and it took quite a while to reduce, but it was still excellent when finished.
Definitely one of those recipes where the whole is greater than sum of the parts…erm…ingredients. We’ll make this often. Thanks so much for taking the time to develop it.
When I let the granulated sugar melt in the oil and then added the chicken, the sugar turned into a hard rock of sugar. Not sure what happened there. Help!
I absolutely loved this recipe, very appealing to the eye and loaded with flavor!! I tried this recipe for my mother, she loved it too.
Also every one of the TWOL recipes I have tried have been VERY, VERY GOOD!!!
Thank you so much for trying our recipes, Thomas. Happy wokking.
Absolutely loved this dish!, I wrapped the finished chicken in lettuce leaves as a twist and it was great. As a side, this is best asian food site I have found. I usually cook Chinese at least once a week and this is my go -to site. I love the videos, have upped my game with your technique. I can’t wait for your cookbook!
That’s so awesome, Lynn, keep it up :-)
I added a few aromatics (cinnamon star anise tangerine peel dried chiles and sichuan peppercorns), otherwise followed instructions exactly. It turned out great, as do all your recipes. Thanks!
Thank you so much for your kind words, David :-)
Hi Judy, can I add mushrooms , black fungus or potato to this dish?
Yes, you can, you can also follow this Braised Chicken with mushroom recipe.
Just cooked this – as per the recipe, AWESOME, another one to add to my favourites. And, so easy. Thank You.
Yayy! So happy to hear that.
Every recipe on this site I’ve tried has been wonderful, and this simple braised chicken is a complete hit. It is fast to make with minimal prep time using inexpensive ingredients. And it is utterly fantastic! Thanks for your website and best wishes for your upcoming cooking show!
Thank you so much for your continued love and support, Liz :-)