Soy Sauce Chicken with Rice

One of my beloved childhood favorites closed in January. I could not even make it back from school to have it one last time. I was seriously depressed or had some kind of anxiety going on when I found out till the a few days after the closing of the place. It's this restaurant called Southwind, located on Division St. in NYC. It's just something that gives me that homey feeling. It's sad to see a mom and pop restaurant closing, especially when you grew up with it.

One of my fave dishes from them is their soy sauce chicken over rice. I know you're thinking this is so simple. But I don't eat soy sauce chicken from anywhere else. This place only had it Tuesday, Thursday and on weekends. Almost everytime I went in on those even days, they would know what I would be ordering already. So after finding out that they were closing, I got a friend who got another friend's mom to snag the recipe. Somehow I think they might have left off an ingredient or two when they gave it to our friend's mom. The chicken came out a lighter in color than what they usually have. Next time I am going to try adding dark soy along with it.

Today I followed along with this...

.5 bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce
around .5 bottle of water or enough to cover the chicken.
4 star anise
4 tblspn of sugar, taste then add more if necessary
2 chicken breast, bone in and skin on

Boil the first 4 ingredients together, after it comes to a rolling boil add the chicken breast in skin side down. Reduce fire to a simmer, to slowly poach the chicken. When chicken is done, take it out and then reduce the liquid to make it thicker. Taste as you go after the chicken is basically cooked in the liquid. You might want to add more soy or sugar. After reducing the liquid, I tasted it again. The flavor was definitely there, a bit salty, when reducing the flavors become more concentrated. So I added a bit more sugar. Next time I will definitely replace some of the kikkoman with a darker soy. With everything said, it was still yummy, moist and tasted just like it!

Here are some pics.

Yes... I have been into brussel sprouts lately. I have gotten it 2-4 times within the past month. I'm on R.A duty this weekend, so there are going to be lots of cooking projects. Tomorrow I am showing my boss how to make wontons and I'm going to make some Almond Tea with Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls! = )

By the way, 342 more days till graduation, 70 more days till ITALIA!

CIAO!