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Recipe

A Bite To Eat With Alice: Tony Tan's chicken with black bean sauce

Prep time: 
25
Cook time: 
260
Skill level: 
High
Serves: 
4
A serving dish filled with tender, roasted chicken pieces smothered in a rich black bean sauce, garnished with onion and pepper.

A flavour-packed classic — succulent roasted chicken in a savoury black bean sauce, Tony Tan's traditional take on a Chinese takeaway classic. (ABC TV: Wesley Mitton)

Alice Zaslavsky is the host of A Bite To Eat with Alice, weeknights at 5pm on ABC TV and anytime on ABC iview. Alice is the resident culinary correspondent for ABC News Breakfast and ABC Radio, a food literacy advocate, bestselling cookbook author, and creator of Phenomenom, a free digital toolbox helping teachers slip more serves of veg into the curriculum.

Jump to Recipe

Tony Tan is bringing an Aussie takeaway favourite back to its roots, showing Alice how to cook it the traditional way.

Raw whole chicken alongside chicken parts, including feet, wings, and necks, on a wooden surface, ready for stock preparation.

The excess parts of the chicken, that usually go to waste, are used to make a delicious and rich homemade chicken stock. (ABC TV: Wesley Mitton)

This dish elevates a humble roast chicken with deep, savoury notes from fermented black beans, Shaoxing wine, and fragrant ginger. But the real secret? A homemade chicken broth — crafted from scratch with bones, aromatics, and time — forming the backbone of countless Asian dishes. 

A pot of simmering homemade chicken stock with shiitake mushrooms, chopped spring onions, ginger floating in broth.

Aromatic and deeply flavoured, this homemade chicken stock is the backbone of Tony Tan's rich and comforting dish. (ABC TV: Wesley Mitton)

This slow, careful process infuses the dish with layers of umami, making it richer and more complex than anything you'd get in a takeaway box. Forget the shortcut — this is how it's really done.

A whole butterflied chicken marinating in a tray with a rich, aromatic marinade.

Letting the chicken soak up the flavours of Shaoxing wine, ginger and five-spice is the key to this deeply aromatic dish. (ABC TV: Wesley Mitton)

Tips

  • Ask your butcher: If you're not confident de-boning a chicken, your butcher can do it for you.
  • Choose bony cuts for stock: Drumsticks, wings and necks are great choices for a flavourful broth.
  • Ginger juice matters: This step adds vibrancy to the dish — don't skip it!
  • Low and slow stock: If you have the time, let your stock simmer on very low heat for as long as possible for a deeper flavour.
  • Skim the scum: Removing the impurities from the stock will result in a cleaner, clearer broth.
  • Freeze for later: Any extra stock can be stored in the freezer for future use.
  • Better black beans: Look for vacuum-sealed fermented black beans — they have the best flavour.

Here's the full list of recipes from Season 2 of A Bite To Eat With Alice.

This recipe appears in A Bite to Eat with Alice, a new nightly cooking show on ABC iview and weeknights at 5pm on ABC TV.

A Bite To Eat With Alice: Tony Tan's chicken with black bean sauce

Prep time: 
25
Cook time: 
260
Skill level: 
High
Serves: 
4

Ingredients

Chicken

  • 1.8 kg (4 lb) chicken 

 Chicken stock 

  • 2kg chicken parts (carcass and wings from breaking down the whole chicken, plus extra necks and feet) 
  • 60g ginger, roughly chopped 
  • 3 spring onions, trimmed 
  • 2—3 dried shiitake mushrooms (optional) 

Marinade

  • ¼ cup (60ml) Shaoxing wine  
  • 80g ginger, chopped and pounded to extract 2 tablespoons juice, strained  
  • 2 tablespoons neutral oil 
  • 1 tablespoon light soy sauce 
  • ½ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder 

Black bean sauce

  • 1 tablespoon neutral oil 
  • 1 onion, finely diced 
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled, finely chopped 
  • 1 red capsicum (pepper), finely diced 
  • 1 spring onion, thinly sliced, plus extra to serve 
  • 2 tablespoons fermented black beans, rinsed and lightly crushed 
  • 1 cup (250 ml) chicken stock 
  • 2 teaspoons light soy sauce 
  • 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce 
  • 1 teaspoon corn flour, mixed with 2 tablespoons water 
  • Salt and white pepper, to taste 

Method

  1. First bone out the chicken (or ask your butcher to do it for you). Turn the bird breast-side down, and cut along one side of the spine, from neck to tail. With short, sharp strokes of your knife, and keeping the knife close to the bone, separate the meat from the carcass, working towards the wing joint. Find the wishbone and remove. Find and cut through the ball-and-socket joint that connects the wing-bone to the carcass, then continue cutting the meat away from the bone, working your way down to the leg. Find the joint that connects the leg bone to the carcass and cut through it. The wing, thigh joints and drumsticks should be separated from the carcass, but still attached to the skin. Repeat with the other side, then gradually trim along the breastbone to remove the frame from the flesh. Cut off the wing tips, then holding a thigh bone from the flesh-side, scrape the meat from the bone with the knife. Carefully cut through the tendons and knee joint. Repeat with the other leg. Discard the frame, wing tips and thigh bones, or save them to make a stock.
  2. Add about 2kg of chicken parts into a large stockpot and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat to a simmer for about 5 minutes. Tip the chicken parts into a large strainer and rinse under cold running water to remove the scum and wash out the stock pot.
  3. Return the chicken parts to the pot and add chopped ginger and spring onions, along with dried shiitake mushrooms. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a bare murmur, and cook uncovered and undisturbed for 2 hours. Strain through a fine strainer or cheesecloth and discard the solids. Cool to room temperature, then place in the fridge overnight.
  4. For the marinade, combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Place the chicken in a baking tray, rub it all over with the marinade and leave it for 20 minutes to marinate. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) 
  5. Place the chicken in the oven and cook for 60—80 minutes, or until the juices run clear when a thigh is pierced with a skewer.
  6. While the chicken is roasting, make the black bean sauce. Heat a wok or frying pan over high heat, until a drop of water evaporates within a second or two. Add the oil and onion, swirl it around until it softens, then add the garlic and capsicum. Stir-fry for 10 seconds, add spring onion and black beans, stir-fry for 10 more seconds, then add the chicken stock and the soy sauces and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 8—10 minutes to allow the flavours to develop, adding more stock if it's reducing too quickly. When it reaches a light sauce consistency, stir in the cornflour slurry and season to taste. Remove from the heat and set aside until you're ready to serve. 
  7. Allow the chicken to rest for 5 minutes before cutting it into serving portions and arranging it on a platter. Add any roasting juices to the black bean sauce, warm if necessary, then drizzle the sauce over the chicken. Top with spring onion to serve. 
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