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You've been cooking chicken wrong your whole life. I don't mean that as an insult. I mean it genuinely because once you see these tricks, you'll wonder how you ever lived without them.
Discover 31 Chinese chicken cooking tricks that transform taste and texture, making your meals easier and more delicious.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.
Key Takeaways
- Traditional Chinese techniques improve chicken flavor, texture, and appearance significantly.
- Simple steps like blanching and resting chicken in broth yield restaurant-quality results.
- Special ingredients like Shaoxing wine and scallion oil add unique savory layers.
- Velveting and double frying are key to achieving tender and crispy chicken textures.
- Attention to detail, such as scoring thighs and oiling cutting boards, enhances cooking and presentation.
What the video covers
- Chinese cooks use cold salted water brining for tender, clean-tasting chicken without long wait times.
- Blanching chicken before braising removes surface proteins, resulting in clear, flavorful broth.
- Shaoxing wine is preferred for deglazing to add savory depth beyond stock or white wine.
- Double frying at different temperatures creates extra crispy fried chicken coatings.
- Resting chicken in cooking liquid enhances moisture and flavor through osmosis.
- Velveting chicken with egg white and cornstarch produces silky, tender stir-fry textures.
- Adding velveted chicken last in stir-fry prevents overcooking and ensures even sauce coating.
- Scallion oil is a fragrant finishing touch that elevates poached or steamed chicken dishes.
- Homemade chicken powder from dried mushrooms and shrimp boosts umami naturally.
- Using both light and dark soy sauce balances seasoning and color in braised chicken.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Overview
- 01:04Salt Brining and Blanching Techniques
- 02:12Using Shaoxing Wine and Double Frying Method
- 03:16Resting Chicken and Velveting Process
- 04:52Oil Velveting and Scallion Oil Finishing
- 05:48Homemade Chicken Powder and Presentation Tips
- 07:51Marinating and Scoring Chicken Thighs
- 08:59Additional Cooking and Flavoring Tips
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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Chinese home cooks and professional chefs have been refining chicken cookery for thousands of years, and buried inside that tradition are dozens of techniques that the average American kitchen has simply never encountered.
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We're counting down all 31 of them today, starting from the bottom and working our way up to the ones that will completely rewire how you think about cooking chicken.
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Number 31. Salt your chicken in cold water, not dry. Most people either dry brine or wet brine their chicken before cooking.
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Chinese cooks do something simpler and faster. Dissolve 2 Tbsp of salt into a bowl of cold water, submerge your chicken pieces for just 20 minutes, then rinse and pat dry.
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The cold salted water draws out blood and impurities while simultaneously beginning to season the meat from the outside in. It also relaxes the muscle fibers slightly, which means more tender meat without the long overnight wait of traditional brining.
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This is why Chinese restaurant chicken always tastes cleaner than homemade versions. Number 30. Blanch.
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Before you braise. Before any braised chicken dish, Chinese cooks bring a pot of water to a boil, drop the chicken pieces in for exactly 90 seconds, then pull them out and rinse under cold running water.
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This blanching step removes surface proteins that would otherwise turn into that gray foamy scum floating in your braising liquid. The result is a broth that stays clear, clean, and deeply flavored rather than murky and slightly bitter.
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American cooks skip this step constantly and then wonder why their braised chicken looks less appetizing than the restaurant version.
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Number 29. Use Shaoxing wine as your deglazing liquid. When you sear chicken in a hot pan and get those beautiful brown bits stuck to the bottom, deglaze with Shaoxing rice wine instead of chicken stock or white wine.
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Shaoxing contains natural sugars and amino acids that not only lift the fond but add a layer of savory depth that stock alone cannot provide.
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Pour in about 3 Tbsp right after you add the aromatics. Let it sizzle and evaporate for 30 seconds, and then proceed with the rest of your liquid.
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You can find Shaoxing wine at virtually any Asian grocery store and increasingly at mainstream supermarkets.
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Number 28, the double fry method for crispier results. For fried chicken dishes like crispy golden chicken, Chinese cooks often fry the chicken twice. The first fry at around 325° F cooks the chicken through slowly without burning the coating.
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Then the chicken rests for 5 to 10 minutes, and it goes back into oil that is now raised to around 375° for a second shorter fry of just 2 to 3 minutes. The second high heat fry drives out residual surface moisture from the
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coating and creates extraordinary crunchiness that a single fry cannot achieve. Number 27, rest your chicken in the cooking liquid.
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After poaching or simmering chicken, Chinese cooks almost never pull it straight out and serve it immediately.
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They turn off the heat and let the chicken rest directly in the hot liquid for another 10 to 15 minutes.
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As the liquid cools very slightly, the chicken reabsorbs some of the seasoned broth back into its outer layers through osmosis.
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The result is moister, more flavorful meat compared to chicken pulled out at the moment of doneness.
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Hainanese chicken rice, one of the most beloved chicken dishes across Asia, relies entirely on this resting principle.
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Number 26, velvet your chicken with egg white and cornstarch. This is one of the most famous Chinese restaurant secrets, and it is shockingly simple.
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Toss thinly sliced chicken breast with one egg white, 1 Tbsp of cornstarch, and a pinch of salt.
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Let it sit for 15 minutes, then briefly cook it in warm oil or blanch it in water before adding it to your stir-fry.
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The egg white creates a protective protein coating, and the cornstarch seals moisture inside the meat.
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This is exactly why Chinese restaurant stir-fried chicken is impossibly silky, while home versions are tough and dry.
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Number 25: Add the chicken last in stir-fry. This sounds counterintuitive, but Chinese professional cooks often add their velveted chicken to the wok last, after all the vegetables and sauce are already cooked and ready.
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Because the chicken has already been pre-cooked through the velveting process, it only needs 30 to 45 seconds in the hot sauce to finish. This prevents overcooking while ensuring every piece gets coated in properly reduced sauce, rather than just sauce
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that pooled at the bottom of the pan. Number 24: Use a spider strainer for oil velveting.
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If you're velveting chicken in oil rather than water, heat your oil to exactly 275° F, which is deliberately low.
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Slide the coated chicken pieces in using a spider strainer, and use the strainer to gently stir them apart so they don't clump.
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Pull them out after 60 to 90 seconds when they turn opaque but not brown.
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This low-temperature oil poaching sets the velveting coating without seizing up the muscle fibers. Chinese professional kitchens use this method because it produces the absolute best texture.
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Number 23: Use scallion oil as a finishing element. One of the most underappreciated tricks in Chinese chicken cooking is scallion oil, which is simply neutral oil heated until very hot, and then poured over finely chopped scallions.
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The flash of heat blooms the aromatics in the scallion instantly, creating a fragrant oil that Chinese people drizzle over poached or steamed chicken as a final layer of flavor. You can make a batch ahead of time and keep it in the
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refrigerator for a week. A single spoonful over plain chicken transforms it completely. Number 22, make your own chicken powder.
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Commercial chicken bouillon and MSG are common in Chinese cooking, but a simple homemade version is even better.
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Toast dried shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, and a small piece of dried tangerine peel in a dry pan until fragrant, then blitz them to a fine powder in a spice grinder. Add a teaspoon of this mixture to any chicken
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dish during cooking. The glutamates in dried mushrooms and shrimp naturally amplify savory flavor the same way MSG does, but with additional layers of complexity that make your food taste restaurant-quality.
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Number 21, oil your cutting board before slicing cooked chicken. When Chinese cooks slice cooked chicken for presentation, they lightly rub their cutting board and knife with a tiny amount of neutral oil first.
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This prevents the cooked chicken skin from tearing and sticking as the knife moves through.
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It also helps the sliced pieces glide apart cleanly rather than shredding or dragging. For whole poached chicken presented tableside, this trick is the difference between professional-looking slices and a ragged mess.
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Number 20, use both dark and light soy sauce. This is a distinction American cooks rarely make, but Chinese people almost always do.
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Light soy sauce is thin, salty, and meant for seasoning. Dark soy sauce is thick, slightly sweet, and meant for coloring and adding depth.
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Using only one or the other produces either salty thin or sweet dark chicken. The correct ratio for most braised chicken dishes is two parts light soy to one part dark soy.
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This combination gives you the right salt level, the right mahogany color, and a balanced savory sweetness that neither sauce achieves alone.
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Number 19, score chicken thighs before marinating. Before marinating bone-in chicken thighs, use a sharp knife to cut three diagonal slashes down to the bone on each side.
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[snorts] Chinese cooks do this because the marinade penetrates the meat much more efficiently when it has direct access to the deeper muscle tissue. For a 30-minute marinade, scored thighs absorb nearly double the flavor compared to unscored ones. This is especially
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important for thick cuts where surface seasoning would otherwise never reach t
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Number 18. Steam chicken on a plate, not a rack. When steaming chicken, Chinese home cooks place the chicken directly on a rimmed plate inside the steamer rather than on a rack.
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As the chicken steams, it releases its own juices onto the plate below. By the time the chicken is done, that plate holds a small pool of concentrated chicken liquid mixed with whatever aromatics you used. This liquid becomes your sauce. Spoon it over the chicken
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with a few drops of sesame oil and a scatter of green onions and you have a complete dish with zero extra effort.
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Number 17. Add sugar to balance saltiness. When a braised or stir-fried chicken dish tastes aggressively salty, Chinese cooks reach for a tiny pinch of sugar rather than diluting the dish with more liquid or water. As little as a
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quarter teaspoon of sugar in a dish serving four people rounds off sharp salt edges without making anything taste sweet.
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This works because sweetness and saltiness are perceived through different taste receptors and a small amount of one suppresses the perception of the other without actually changing the salt level.
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Number 16. Use cold oil and cold garlic together. For chicken dishes where garlic needs to infuse oil slowly, Chinese cooks often start with cold oil and add the garlic before the heat comes on.
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As the pan heats up gradually, the garlic has time to release its aromatic compounds into the oil at a lower temperature, which produces sweeter, more mellow garlic flavor.
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Starting garlic in hot oil risks burning it in seconds, which creates bitter compounds that ruin the entire dish.
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This patient approach is one of the small habits that separates consistently good cooking from erratic results.
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Number 15. Coat your chicken in potato starch instead of cornstarch for frying. While cornstarch is the standard thickener and velveting agent, Chinese cooks often switch to potato starch specifically for fried chicken applications. Potato starch creates a slightly thicker, crunchier coating than
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cornstarch because its granules are larger and absorb more water before gelatinizing during frying. The resulting crust is more substantial and stays crispy longer. This is a key detail in achieving the specific texture of dishes like Taiwanese popcorn chicken
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and certain Cantonese fried preparations. Number 14. Use a wok lid to trap steam at the right moment. Professional Chinese wok cooking uses the lid strategically rather than constantly. For chicken dishes, sear the meat uncovered to develop browning, then
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add your sauce liquids and clamp the lid on for exactly 2 minutes to steam braise the chicken through quickly. Remove the lid and let the sauce reduce over high heat for another minute to concentrate flavor and create a glossy coating.
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This covered and uncovered rhythm means faster cooking, properly cooked chicken, and beautifully sauced results without the chicken sitting in liquid for long enough to become waterlogged.
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Number 13. Finish with sesame oil off heat. Sesame oil is one of the most important finishing oils in Chinese cooking, but the critical detail [music] is that it should almost never go into a hot pan.
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Chinese cooks add sesame oil after the heat is off as a final flavoring step rather than a cooking fat.
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When sesame oil gets too hot, its delicate nutty aroma burns away and turns slightly bitter.
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A few drops stirred in at the very end perfumes the entire dish with that distinctive toasty fragrance that makes Chinese chicken dishes smell completely irresistible.
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Number 12. Dry your chicken skin before roasting completely. Chinese roast chicken and Peking style preparations rely on completely dry skin to achieve maximum crispiness. Chinese cooks air dry marinated chicken uncovered in the refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours and ideally
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overnight. They also sometimes use a hair dryer set to cool air to speed the process.
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This removes all surface moisture that would otherwise create steam in the oven, which is the enemy of crispy skin.
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Even 30 extra minutes of uncovered fridge time before roasting makes a meaningful difference. Number 11. Coat roast chicken in a maltose and vinegar glaze.
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The signature lacquered skin on Chinese roast chicken comes from brushing the skin with a mixture of maltose syrup, Chinese red vinegar, and a small amount of boiling water before air drying.
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Maltose is a sugar with lower moisture content than honey, which means it dries to a harder, shinier shell when exposed to heat.
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The vinegar adds a slight tang that prevents the glaze from tasting cloyingly sweet. Maltose is available at Asian grocery stores and a single jar will last you months.
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Number 10. Cook chicken with the bone in whenever possible. Chinese cooks have a strong preference for bone-in chicken even in dishes like stir-fries where it makes the eating slightly messier.
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The reason is purely flavor. Bone marrow and the connective tissue around bones releases collagen and gelatin into the cooking liquid or sauce during cooking, adding body, richness, and a lip-coating quality that boneless, skinless chicken simply cannot produce.
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If you're braising, always use bone-in pieces. If you're making a quick stir-fry, at minimum use bone-in thighs and cut them through the bone with a cleaver. Number 10, brought up cleavers, which is the perfect moment to mention that if you want every single technique
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like this collected in one place, my ebook The Complete Chinese Kitchen Bible has over 900 clever cooking tricks, techniques, and restaurant secrets covering everything from the channel finally gathered into one comprehensive guide.
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It's the resource I genuinely wish I'd had when I was learning all of this.
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Link is in the description. Number nine, use fermented black beans with chicken. Fermented black beans are one of the most powerful umami bombs in Chinese cooking and they pair extraordinarily well with chicken.
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Rinse them briefly to remove excess salt, then crush them roughly with the back of a spoon before adding to hot oil.
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Cook them for 30 seconds before adding any chicken or vegetables. This blooming step develops their complex savory funky flavor into the oil and distributes it throughout the entire dish. The result is a depth of flavor that no single
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spice or sauce can replicate. Number eight, make chicken superior stock the Chinese way. Regular chicken stock is water and chicken bones.
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Chinese superior stock adds dried scallops, a ham bone or cured pork, ginger, and Shaoxing wine to the mix and simmers for 4 to 6 hours.
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The result is a stock so rich in glutamates and collagen that it gels firmly in the refrigerator and makes any sauce or broth that uses it taste like it came from a three-star restaurant kitchen.
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Chinese professional chefs guard their superior stock recipes carefully because it is the invisible foundation that elevates every dish it touches.
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Number seven, control wok hei with a specific technique. Wok hei, that slightly smoky charred edge that restaurant Chinese chicken dishes have and home cooking doesn't, comes from extreme heat combined with proper technique.
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Most home stoves cannot match a restaurant burner, but you can partially replicate wok hei by preheating your wok or heaviest skillet until it is smoking hot, then adding oil and chicken in a single layer without touching it for a
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full 90 seconds. Do not stir. Let the chicken develop a genuine sear before moving it.
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The Maillard reaction produces those complex smoky compounds that approximate the restaurant experience even on a standard home stove. Number six, incorporate chicken fat back into cooking.
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Chinese cooks rarely waste anything, and chicken fat is treated as a valuable cooking medium rather than something to be trimmed and discarded.
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When rendering chicken skin or trim, save the liquid fat that results and use it instead of neutral oil for stir-frying.
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The flavor compounds already present in rendered chicken fat amplify every ingredient that subsequently cooks in it. Using chicken fat to sauté aromatics before adding more chicken creates a feedback loop flavor concentration that cooking oils simply cannot match. Number
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five, control texture with ice water shocking. After any boiling or blanching step with chicken, Chinese cooks immediately plunge the cooked chicken into an ice water bath for several minutes.
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This rapid temperature drop stops carryover cooking instantly and contracts the outer muscle fibers quickly, creating a slightly firmer, more pleasant bite.
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More importantly, the dramatic temperature change between the hot chicken and the cold water causes the skin to tighten dramatically, resulting in a more attractive appearance and a subtle snap to the texture.
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This is the technique behind the beautifully presented cold chicken dishes served at Chinese banquets.
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Number four, layer aromatics in order of their burn point. Chinese cooks add aromatics to hot oil in a specific order based on how quickly each one burns.
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Dried chilies and whole spices go in first when the oil is hot, followed by garlic and ginger together, then scallion whites, and finally any wet ingredients like soy sauce or oyster sauce.
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This sequencing ensures each ingredient gets adequate heat exposure without burning. If you reverse the order and add ginger or garlic before the oil is ready, you lose fragrance. If you add them too late, they don't fully bloom.
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The order is the technique. Number three, poach chicken at exactly 180° F. The Chinese method for producing perfectly juicy silky chicken breast relies on poaching below a boil.
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Bring your poaching liquid to 180° F, which is steaming gently but not bubbling. Submerge bone-in chicken pieces and maintain that 180° temperature for 25 minutes.
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At this precise temperature, the proteins in chicken breast denature fully but do not contract aggressively the way they do at boiling point. The result is chicken with a texture that is simultaneously cooked through and almost custard soft, which is scientifically
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the ideal outcome for lean breast meat. Number two, master the cold start roast chicken method.
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Chinese roast chicken starts in a cold oven in some regional preparations with the bird placed inside before the heat is turned on.
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As the oven gradually rises to temperature, the fat under the skin has time to render slowly and baste the meat from within.
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The outer skin reaches crisping temperature only after the interior is already nearly cooked through, which means you get crispy skin without any risk of dry breast meat.
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Set your oven to 400° F and start the bird cold. Check at 45 minutes for smaller birds. Number one, the red cooking master sauce. This is the crown jewel of Chinese chicken technique. Red cooking, called hong shao, uses a
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braising master sauce made from soy sauce, shao xing wine, rock sugar, star anise, cinnamon, dried tangerine peel, and water. Chinese families keep this master sauce alive for years, decades even, replenishing it with fresh aromatics and liquid after each use. The
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longer the sauce ages, the more complex and layered it becomes as each batch of chicken, pork, or tofu cooked in it deposits flavor back into the liquid.
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The chicken you braise in a well-aged master sauce carries flavors that have been building across hundreds of meals.
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To start your own, combine one cup light soy sauce, half a cup dark soy sauce, one cup shao xing wine, three cups water, four tablespoons rock sugar, two star anise, one cinnamon stick, and two strips of dried tangerine peel.
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Bring to a simmer, add chicken. Braise for 40 minutes, then store the strained sauce in the refrigerator or freezer for your next session.
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Every time you use it, your cooking gets better automatically. If these 31 tricks changed how you think about cooking chicken, then you would genuinely love the complete Chinese Kitchen Bible.
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It is everything from this channel finally in one place, over 900 clever cooking tricks, techniques, and restaurant secrets covering far more than just chicken across every area of Chinese cooking. Go check it out. Now, pick one of these tricks, try it
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tonight, and let me know in the comments which one blew your mind the most.
Topics:Chinese cookingchicken recipescooking tipsvelveting chickenShaoxing winedouble fryingchicken briningscallion oilChinese kitchen hacksbraised chicken
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