Soy sauce chicken (Si yau gai)

1. Wash the chicken, pat it dry inside and out and let it come to room temperature; cut the ginger into thick slices and halve the spring onions.

2. In a pot just large enough to hold the chicken, bring the water to the boil with the soy sauce, sugar, star anise, ginger, spring onions and Shaoxing rice wine, and simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Lower the chicken in breast side down, fill the cavity with liquid too, bring back to the boil and simmer gently for 15 minutes, basting a few times.

4. Turn it over and simmer for another 15 minutes, then cover, take off the heat and leave it to finish cooking in the hot liquid for 20 minutes; when pierced at the thigh, the juices should run clear.

5. Lift out the chicken and rest it for 10 minutes; meanwhile reduce some of the braising liquid over low heat and brush it over the skin several times so it turns glossy and mahogany-coloured.

6. Chop the chicken through the bone into pieces with a cleaver, arrange on a platter, drizzle with a little of the liquid and serve with rice.

Tip: Don't throw the braising liquid away: strained and frozen, it becomes the "master stock" for your next chicken – some Cantonese restaurants have been topping up the same one for decades. The more you use it, the deeper the flavour.