Warming Taiwanese Sesame Oil Chicken Soup Recipe

A super warming dish for winter 🍲

Have you tried adding alcohol into chicken soup before? If not, you have to try this Taiwanese sesame oil chicken soup (麻油燒酒雞) this winter! It’s the perfect dish to take the edge off the winter chill. My mum always makes it in winter as it warms you up straight away, and you’ll only need a small bowl of it.

This dish tastes the best when you only use rice cooking wine and no water. One thing to note is that you should NOT use any other wine, only rice cooking wine (preferably one from Taiwan), as the taste will be different. I tried using Shaoxing wine before and I wasn’t too impressed with the taste 🙈

The difficult part I find about making this soup in the UK is finding the right chicken with the bone in, so I usually get some drumsticks and thighs and chop them up myself.

Taiwanese Sesame Oil Chicken Soup

Rating:

Serves:

2

Prep Time:

10 Minutes

Cooking Time:

35-45 Minutes

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Ingredients

• About 800g bone-in chicken drumsticks and thighs, chopped
• About 50g ginger, sliced
• 1-2 bottles of Taiwanese rice cooking wine
• 3 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp rock sugar
• 1 tbsp goji berries (optional)
• 1 Chinese herb mix pouch for stewing chicken (optional)

Instructions

1. 1Add the sesame oil and sliced ginger to a cold wok and pan fry on a low heat until the ginger is golden and starts to crisp. Make sure the heat is not too high, otherwise the sesame oil will taste a bit bitter!
2. 2Add the chicken and stir until it’s about half done.
3. 3Add 1 bottle of rice wine, the rock sugar and the Chinese herb mix pouch, if using. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes.
4. 4Add the goji berries and some more rice wine 10 minutes before it’s done.
5. 5If you like it to taste more alcohol-y, add a dash of rice wine just before serving.

0:20

Only use rice cooking wine, with no water. Other wines will change the taste.