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Red Braised Chicken (or aka Red Cooked Chicken) is such a delicious chicken dish – it’s made by browning chicken and then simmering with soy sauce, ginger, green onions, and more!

What is braised chicken?

Braising is not unique to Asian cooking – there’s a lot of dishes across the world that uses braising, for example in France there is Beef bourguignon (also delicious).

To braise chicken is basically to brown the meat first at a high temperature, and then simmer it in a covered pot with liquid.

It is similar to stewing, however, braising usually involves cooking large pieces of meat in partially covered liquid, while stewing uses smaller pieces of meat and is totally immersed in liquid.

By the way – if you like red braised chicken, you will most likely also enjoy my red braised fish, red braised pork belly, and red braised beef!

What is red braised chicken?

This dish is called Red Braised chicken because in Chinese it is called Hong Shao Ji 紅燒雞. Hong Shao 紅燒 = Red Cooked. Ji 雞= Chicken.

Braising the chicken with soy sauce causes the chicken and the sauce/broth/soup to turn in to a reddish color, and that’s why it is called red braised.

If you love red braised meat dishes… I highly suggest my red braised pork belly and red braised beef! With red braised beef, you can make the famous delicious beef noodle soup with it too!

How to cook red braised chicken?

First gather your ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lb chicken drumsticks (or thighs)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 green onion, cut about 1 inch length
• 1 tbsp ginger, sliced thinly
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp chili bean paste
• 1/4 tbsp michiu (rice cooking wine)
• 1 tbsp brown sugar (or rock sugar)
• 3 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 cup of water

Heat a wok or cooking pan to medium high heat. Add ginger and scallions and let it cook for about a minute.

Then add the chicken drumsticks to the pan and rotate the chicken drumsticks to make sure all the sides are cooked a bit.

Add light soy sauce, chili bean paste, brown sugar, and rice wine to chicken drumsticks and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Optionally, transfer to a pot (this helps the braising liquid touch more of the chicken).

Add the water to the chicken. Turn heat to high heat, and bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium heat. Add dark soy sauce, mix well, and cover and cook for about 15 minutes (or until chicken is cooked thoroughly but not too well done). During this time, every 5 minutes, check on it and mix well in order to rotate and make sure chicken is cooked evenly.

Uncover and turn heat to high again, and cook for 5 more minutes in order to reduce the sauce. Keep an eye on it, rotating as needed to cook evenly.

Remove from heat and serve!

Here it is made with Chicken Thighs instead of Chicken Drumsticks:

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