A twist of Char Siu

It is all back to the time when I was in Finland. This is a dish that I had served to my friends before I finished my exchange program. Thus, it is quite memorable to me. The contract of my hostel was ended during 31 of December. To fulfill my traveling desire, I had to ask my Chinese friends to adopt me for 2 more weeks in their places. For returning their kind favor, I promised them to cook different type of food for expand their food horizon. I had made chicken tikka masala, ayam masak merah, cinnamon rolls, Hawaiian Pizza and Cacciucco all in my version. I gave a little bit of twist due to the difficulty of searching ingredients and the price of ingredients. However, they were not my masterpieces I shall say. I believe that I could do it much better with a proper tutor if there is.

Among all the dishes I had made, “Char Siu” received the best review from them. Maybe because they are Chinese, they tend to accept food that they are more familiar with. Hence, I am pretty proud of myself as I convert my Char Siu recipe from marination to a sauce base. I marinate the chicken drumsticks with the Char Siu sauce and I also use the Char Siu sauce for the sausage bun and also burgers on another day. Let me show you at the bottom.

The ingredients for marination:

Brown sugars 1.5 tablespoon

Honey 1 table spoon

Tomato ketchup 0.5 tablespoon

Chinese five spice powder 1 teaspoon

Hoisin sauce 1.5 tablespoons

Rice wine 1 teaspoon

Salt 1/4 teaspoon

Pepper 1/4 spoon

Sesame oil 1 tablespoon

Additional ingredients:

4 Chicken drumsticks

Spring onion 1 small branch

Method:

Mix all the ingredients for marination; taste the mixture again, it should be slightly sweet. Add in chicken drumsticks and give a good massage with slightly pull the meat of drumsticks. Cover it with plastic wrap and put inside fridge for 4 hours to a day; the longer the better.

Pre-heat oven to 180 celsius, take out the drumsticks half and hour before cooking. Put it on the baking tray with aluminum foil at the bottom and set inside the oven for 45 mins. Slice the spring onion and sprinkle on top of the finished chicken and voila.

For making sauce:

Brown sugars 4 tablespoons

Tomato ketchup 2 table spoons

Chinese five spice powder 2 teaspoons

Hoisin sauce 4 tablespoons

Rice wine vinegar 2 table spoons

Salt 1/2 teaspoon

Pepper 1/2 teaspoon

Chicken stock 200 ml

Flour 75 gram

Unsalted Butter 50 gram

Method:

First make the roux by heating unsalted butter and add in flour to have a good mix. After the roux become yellowish, add in the rest of ingredients except chicken stock, salt and pepper. When bubble up, add in the chicken stock and let it reduce. Season with salt and pepper at last.