Hong Zao Ji

Hong Zao Ji (Chicken with Red Glutinous Rice Wine Lees) is a Chinese dish. Red glutinous rice wine lees are basically the leftover byproduct from fermenting glutinous rice and red yeast rice to make red glutinous rice wine. After the wine has fermented, the bits of fermented rice settle into a flavorful paste - the lees - at the bottom of the wine. This paste is then used as the primary ingredient for this recipe.

This is a regional dish that's fairly well known in the Fujian province of China, specifically the Fuzhou area. My grandfather was from that area, so this recipe is how my grandmother always cooked it for him. This is probably my favorite Chinese recipe out of all of my family recipes. Because it is such a regional dish, however, it is also very difficult to find the lees here in America - sometimes I'll search all over Chinatown in a major city and still not find it.

Ingredients

• Red Glutinous Rice Wine Lees, or the sauce version of it
  • The ideal would be to find the lees as a paste. You'll need about 5 oz. Sometimes the lees come in packets of about that size. Here's an example:
  • If you can't find the paste itself, sometimes you can find it in a pre-made sauce version (the lees have been combined with other liquid to make a sauce rather than a paste). The sauce varies a little depending on the brand, but I usually use about 10 oz of the sauce. Here's an example where I'd use the whole jar:
• 8-10 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
  • Boneless skinless thighs are also fine as an alternative, as are drumsticks. Dark meat generally works best for this recipe.
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rock sugar
  • This can often be found in the asian aisle, or at the asian grocery store.
  • You can also use normal sugar instead, but the Chinese rock sugar is a little less sweet. As my grandmother says, it "makes the chicken shiny"
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Directions

1. Heat the cooking oil in a wok on medium-high, until hot. Add the rice wine lees.
2. Break up the paste and stir constantly, cooking until the paste turns maroon / dark red. This will happen very fast - maybe 1 minute or less - so make sure you don't burn it. If you're using the sauce it won't really darken as much because of the liquid.
3. Add the chicken and continue to stir fry for 10 minutes, stirring constantly so the lees don't burn, until the chicken is evenly coated with the lees and starting to brown.
4. Add the soy sauce and sugar, and continue stirring constantly for 1-2 minutes until the sugar is melted and the chicken is coated.
5. Add enough water to the pot to be about level with the chicken.
6. Bring the water to a rolling boil and reduce the heat to medium. Cover and let cook for about 40-50 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep the chicken from sticking. By the end, you'll want the water to have reduced by about an inch and the flavor to be concentrated to taste, so feel free to adjust things like how tight the lid is as it cooks.
7. Serve over rice.