Serves 4

Jeannie replaced the whole chicken from the original recipe for soy sauce chicken with boneless skin-on thighs so that the recipe can be prepared more quickly. She kept the skin on for flavor. If you only can find boneless, skinless chicken thighs then use them. You can also debone the chicken thighs yourself.

For the soy sauce chicken:
2 tablespoons vegetable or neutral oil
4 boneless skin-on chicken thighs
2 tablespoons vegetable or neutral oil
5 coins of ginger, about ⅛ inch thick
2 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 star anise
½ cup shaoshing (rice) wine
1/3 cup dark soy sauce
2/3 cup regular soy sauce
3 tangerine or navel orange peels, any white pith removed
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Enough water to cover the chicken (about 2-3 cups)

For the garnish:
1 1/2 inch piece of ginger, minced
3 scallions finely chopped
1/4 cup vegetable or neutral oil

Cooked rice

Make the soy sauce chicken: In a 2 quart skillet, heat the oil over medium heat, add the ginger, scallion and and anise and cook until fragrant, about 30-60 seconds. Add the wine, and simmer about 2 minutes. Add the dark and regular soy sauces, orange peel, sugar, and salt, bring to a boil and simmer until the sugar is dissolved. Add the water and bring to a boil.

Add the chicken pieces, making sure they are entirely submerged in the liquid. Bring back to boil, lower heat to a simmer, and cook for 15 minutes. Then cover the skillet and turn off the heat, allowing the chicken to poach in the hot liquid for another 10 minutes.

Prepare the garnish:
Heat the oil in a small saucepan until almost smoking. Combine the ginger and scallions in a heat proof bowl and  carefully pour the oil over them.

Remove the cooked chicken from the sauce, slice it into 1 inch pieces, drizzle with the sauce, and top with the scallion sauce. Serve with rice.

To keep the sauce as a master sauce: when cool, strain the sauce of all the aromatics, and keep the sauce in sealed containers in the freezer. It can be kept for 6 months. When ready to reuse, fry fresh ginger and scallion and add the defrosted master sauce along with 1 more star anise (it’s not necessary if you don’t have it).

Add more water to cover the chicken and continue to cook as directed.

The master sauce can be reused over and over, and it gets more flavorful with each use.