Chicken, Stewed Shaoxing-style

Poultry

Chicken, Stewed Shaoxing-style
Ingredients:
2 to 3 pound chicken, cut into thirty-two pieces
3 Tablespoons dark soy sauce
3 tablespoons Chinese yellow rice wine
2 Tablespoons yam or sweet potato flour
1 cup vegetable oil
2 scallions, minced
1 one-inch cube Chinese brown sugar, crushed
1 red chili pepper, optional
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 small stick dried licorice
2 cups chicken stock
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into two-inch pieces
1 Chinese yam, peeled and cut into two-inch pieces
1 piece bamboo shoot, peeled and cut into two-inch pieces
Preparation:
1. Marinate chicken pieces in soy sauce and rice wine for half an hour, then drain and reserve the marinade.
2. Mix drained chicken with the sweet potato flour and set aside for ten minutes.
3. Heat oil in a wok or large pot and deep-fry half the chicken, stirring often, for five minutes or until nicely browned. Remove the chicken to a large deep clay-pot. Repeat with the other half of the chicken. Strain and reserve all but one tablespoon of the oil for another purpose.
4. Reheat the reserved oil and stir-fry the scallions for one minute, then add them to the clay-pot. Add the brown sugar, chili pepper, ground white pepper, licorice, and the chicken stock. Cover the clay-pot and simmer for one hour.
5. Add the reserved soy sauce-wine mixture and the carrot, yam, and bamboo shoot pieces and recover the pot and simmer another thirty minutes. Discard the chili pepper and the licorice and serve.

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