Not all chickens are created equal. As long as they are stored correctly, fresh chickens will almost always taste better than frozen, and the texture is firmer and less watery, too. So try to buy fresh local chickens instead of the flabby, tasteless, overgrown ones sold in supermarkets – they will make whatever dish you’re cooking taste better.
Most Hongkongers just go to the siu mei (roast meat) shop if they want soy sauce chicken, but it’s also easy to make. The fresh local chickens I buy are the perfect size: 1.2kg. If you like, chop off the head, neck and feet before poaching the bird (it doesn’t change the cooking time), then freeze them to use the next time you make chicken broth.
Choose a cooking pot that is large and deep enough that the chicken has room to “swim” in the poaching liquid. It shouldn’t be too wide though, because the poaching liquid needs to cover three-quarters of the bird.
In this recipe, the chicken is just poached, not simmered, which gives the meat a silky texture. I like chicken a little pink at the bones so for a bird that weighs 1.2kg, I poach it for an hour. If you prefer it fully cooked, poach it longer. If you have a larger chicken, you'll need to increase the cooking time. A chicken that weighs 1.5kg (53oz) will need about 1½ to 2 hours to poach, plus an hour to cool in the liquid.
