With a deep reddish hue, meat-off-the-bone-tender chicken, and deliciously spiced sauce, this Asian dish – SLOW COOKER RED-COOKED CHICKEN is an easy favorite. Serve with rice and drizzle all that yummy sauce on top.

I love cooking Chinese food. It really is, next to Filipino cuisine, my favorite. Whenever I crave something with Asian flavors that means family dinner will have rice and a Chinese viand. Also, it’s much easier to find ingredients for Chinese recipes nowadays as chances are you are within walking or driving distance from a Chinese store.

However, that is not often the case with my Filipino ingredients although of late many Asian stores now carry some of the basic Filipino must-haves for cooking. For this reason, Asian night means mostly Chinese night.

Red-cooked simply means a slow-braising Chinese technique that imparts a deep reddish-brown hue to the food. Soy sauce, sugar, and other spices (usually included in the Chinese Five Spice family) like cinnamon, star anise, and cloves are added to lend the meat that deep rich hue and also to give it that unique and delicious taste.

Traditionally, rice wine or dry sherry are also used. For this version, I used balsamic vinegar instead of dry sherry or rice wine as I didn’t have any of the latter when I cooked this. I will provide both options in the recipe below. Of course, the dish is made even easier as it’s done in the slow cooker.

You can certainly braise this on the stovetop, just lessen the length of cooking. Also, if you wish to not brown the chicken – ensure that the chicken is skinless otherwise all the fat in the skin will get into your stew. It will be yummy with all that fat but it will be kind of greasy.

Anyway, it is a flavorful dish that you can tweak to your taste buds liking. This dish tastes even better the next day so if you can wait then do so. Enjoy with Jasmine rice, of course!

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Slow Cooker Red-Cooked Chicken

By: Manila Spoon

April 10, 2014

With a deep reddish hue, meat-off-the-bone-tender chicken, and deliciously spiced sauce, this Asian dish is an easy favorite.

FOR FULL RECIPE & INSTRUCTIONS and to PRINT, SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW.

WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS FOR SLOW COOKER RED-COOKED CHICKEN?

• 1 tablespoon sesame Oil
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 1/2 tablespoons dark soy sauce see note
• 1/4 cup honey or sugar
• 1/4 cup rice wine or dry Sherry
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons oil, for frying
• 3 lb chicken pieces (about 8-10 pieces) or 1 whole chicken cut-up
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 large onion, sliced into quarters then sliced into halves
• 1 piece 2-inch fresh ginger, grated
• 3 star anise
• 3 whole cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks

HOW DO YOU MAKE SLOW COOKER RED-COOKED CHICKEN?

1. In a bowl, mix together the sesame oil, soy sauce, honey or sugar, water, and rice wine. Set aside.
2. Heat the oil to medium-high in a skillet or use the saute setting if using the Instant Pot Dutch oven slow cooker. Fry the chicken pieces in batches until nicely browned. Transfer to a plate as you cook each piece.
3. Leave but 1-2 tablespoons oil in the skillet or the Instant Pot Dutch oven slow cooker (add extra oil to the pan if needed). Adjust the heat to medium. Saute the garlic and onion until the onions begin to change color and is starting to soften (about 2-3 minutes). To the pan add the grated ginger, star anise, cloves, and cinnamon stick and saute briefly until aromatic. We need to heat up the spices to release their flavors.
4. If using a regular slow cooker, place the chicken pieces at the bottom of the pot. Add the spices on top and then pour on the soy sauce mixture. If using the Instant Pot Dutch oven slow cooker, simply return the chicken pieces to the pot then pour over the soy sauce mixture.
5. Cook on high for 2-3 hours or on low for 5-6 hours until chicken is tender.
6. Serve hot with some jasmine rice on the side and a little drizzle of the yummy sauce on top! If possible, cook this chicken dish one day ahead to fully develop the flavor. It’s worth the wait!

Recipe Notes

TIPS & TRICKS

Light soy sauce is simply your regular soy sauce (and not salt-reduced soy sauce). It’s called light because of the color and it’s more diluted (less thick) than dark soy sauce. The latter is thicker in consistency and sweeter than regular soy sauce. Both types may be found in any Asian stores and labelled as such.

For this recipe, if you cannot find or don’t have dark soy sauce – simply use about 1/3 cup of regular soy sauce.

Yield: Serves 4-6
Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Cooking Time: 3 Hours
Total Time: 3 Hours and 30 Minutes

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Last updated on August 17th, 2023 at 02:17 pm