Asian Braised Chicken

This recipe comes from one of my favourite cook books, Belinda Jeffery's Collected Recipes. I took the book out of the library and then after renewing it twice, realised that I couldn't do without it, so I purchased it. You can buy it here.

This recipe is called Braised Star Anise Chicken, but I don't always put the star anise in, so I just like to call it Asian Braised Chicken. It is finger licking delicious and the stock can be frozen to use in other asian dishes. It's fabulous for pork belly.

Asian Braised Chicken

1 cup kecap manis - this is a sweet thick soy sauce. If you don't have it, just use a little more sugar
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup chicken stock - you can use water with a teaspoon of stock powder or paste
½ cup rapadura sugar
2 star anise - or leave out as I sometimes do and use 2 teaspoons of five spice powder
½ cup sherry
2 cloves garlic, sliced
6cm piece ginger, sliced
1 x Size 20 Free Range Chicken

Pre heat the oven to 180C.
Place everything except the chicken into the Thermomix bowl and heat on 100/5 minutes/speed 2.
Place chicken into a large casserole dish and pour over the sauce. Place the lid on the dish and place in the oven.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, basting regularly. You can turn chicken over, but I prefer not to.
If you like, cook the liquid down after removing the chicken to make a thick glaze to brush over the skin before serving.

Strain the stock into jars and freeze for later use.

Serve with fried rice and stir fried asian vegetables. Or serve cold with salads.

I'm cooking this next Monday, so will take a photo then!