Another simple Chinese Cantonese recipe to put together for a quick dinner is this Chinese Soy Sauce Chicken Wings dish. Chicken wings are such a versatile protein in Chinese cooking, it’s quick to cook and is always a favourite.  I should really share more Chicken Wing recipes with you here, I’ll make a mental note of this.

This Soy Sauce marinade recipe is also very versatile, it can be used to marinade eggs, beef shin slices, duck or even tofu.  And the wonderful thing about this recipe is that you can the refrigerate the marinade and re-use it!  I personally don’t use it more than 2x, but some say the flavours develop with time, so it’s up to you how long you want to keep the marinade.

Cooking Tips:

• The dark soy used in this recipe is for colouring and doesn’t add saltiness, so adjust the dark soy content to how saturated you want your wings to look.
• I suppose you can use any type of sugar for the sweetness, but the Chinese Rock Sugar will make the soy marinade look glossier.
• Mei Kuei Lu Chiew (Chinese rose wine) is something you can find in Chinese supermarkets and in HK they can be easily found in ParknShop and Wellcome.
• I like to buy my Chinese spices such as Star Anise and Cinnamon sticks from tiny local Chinese grocer’s (雜貨鋪) that sell dry and canned goods because they are so cheap and you can get all the spices in one bag (cloves, Sichuan pepper, Fennel seeds, etc).

Soy Sauce Chicken Wings (滷水雞翼)

10 chicken wings, mid section
500mL water
125mL light soy sauce
50mL dark soy sauce
50g rock sugar
2 star anise
1 small Chinese cinnamon bark
1 slice of ginger
1 tbsp Mei Kuei Lu Chiew (Chinese rose wine)
2 tsp salt
spring onions for garnish (optional)

Rinse the chicken wings.  In a medium sauce pan, fill with water and bring to a boil with 2 tsp salt. Then blanch the chicken wings for about a minute and remove and drain well. If your chicken wings were pre-frozen, this will help rid the frozen taste.

Rinse the sauce pan and combine the light soy, dark soy, sugar,star anise, cinnamon and ginger and bring to a boil over high heat. Then turn the heat down to medium and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Then add the rose wine and simmer for another minute.

Turn up the heat to high for the soy marinade and bringing it to a boil again, then add the chicken wings. Turn the heat down to medium and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes until done. Remove the sauce pan from the heat and allow the chicken wings to sit in the marinade for another 15 minutes.

Plate the chicken wings and top with a little soy marinade and garish with spring onions.

Enjoy~~

**You can save the soy marinade in the fridge and re-use for 2 more times for future dishes.