Sweet Soy Sauce Herbal Chicken

Sweet Soy Sauce Herbal Chicken with Red Dates, Yu Zhu and Wolfberries

Just something I cooked the other day because I was itching to get away from my regular soy sauce chicken recipe, which typically involves only dousing light and dark soy sauce together for taste. It's my lazy-day favourite.

In this recipe though, several natural sweetish ingredients were included to enhance the flavour, like red dates, Yu Zhu (Solomon’s Seal Rhizome - Learn more about Yu Zhu here. ) and carrots. In short, I've complicated the recipe a little for something richer.

The end result is a yummy sweet-salty herbal chicken dish that compliments plain brown rice or yam rice.

This is the recipe. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Ingredients:
- 5 pcs chicken drumstick
- 1 clove garlic (chopped)
- ½ medium carrot (julienne)
- ½ small cabbage - just a handful (sliced)
- 1 tsp dried wolfberries (rinse and soak in water for 10 minutes)
- 6 slices of dried Yu Zhu (rinse and soak until tender, preferably overnight)
- 2 medium dried red dates (rinse and soak in water for 30 minutes, make a small cut before cooking)
- 1½ tbsp light sweet soy sauce
- 1½ tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp corn flour to thicken (diluted in a bit of water)
- Pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 tsp cooking oil
- 2-3 cups water
- Spring onions (chopped) for garnishing

How-to:
1) Heat cooking pan with oil. Add garlic and fry until lightly browned.

2) Add chicken and carrots. While stirring, season with soy sauce and oyster sauce.

3) Add water, followed by red dates, cabbage and solomon's seal. Stir well and simmer until the chicken is cooked and slightly tender (about 45 minutes). Add more water if it gets too dry.

4) Taste and season with a pinch of salt (if necessary) and pepper. Stir the wolfberries in at the last five minutes of cooking.

5) Switch the fire off, add the corn flour while it's still hot and stir well. Serve garnished with spring onions.

Yummy Herbal Chicken

Serve garnished with spring onions!