Braised Chicken Drumsticks

Get Recipe

This Chinese braised chicken drumsticks (滷雞腿) is a simple and homely dish. It is quick to cook as the simmering time is less than an hour. Unlike braised pork, this is not a dish which can withstand a long simmering time, as the chicken skin and meat will start to fall apart – definitely not a pretty sight if the drumsticks are not served intact.

More Braised Dishes:

• Braised Pork Belly (豆油肉) Recipe (above)
• Braised Shiitake Mushrooms Recipe
• Braised Ee-Fu Noodles Recipe

The braised chicken keeps well in the fridge and also reheats easily with the microwave or on the stove, so I always make more for leftovers. As my mum always says, braised food tastes better the next day. I also took the chance to use the leftover sauce to soak and make ramen eggs (eggs with runny yolk) which is a luxurious treat in a humble dish like this.

These are the aromatics I used for all my braised dishes. The labels in light colour (garlic, star anise, white peppercorn, cinnamon) are the essentials to me, while the labels in darker colour (cloves, cardamon & green part of negi) are optional but very good to have. Not shown in pic is the 5-spice powder, but just a little bit though. With these aromatics, the rule is that a little goes a long way in a dish like this. Using too much spices will result in overpowering flavours.

This is my casserole before cooking. I try to submerge the chicken and dried mushrooms fully in the sauce, so that the colour and flavours will be even. I also place the small dried ingredients in a disposable soup stock pouch for convenience (discard the pouch when the dish is done).

Keep the lid partially open (leave a small opening for ventilation) during simmering. Add hard-boiled eggs during last 10 minutes of simmering.

This is the stew when cooked. Discard the negi and disposable soup stock pouch.