Master Sauce Poussin

Master sauce dishes are among the most approachable in the Chinese culinary lexicon, the coq au vin of the would-be-Chinese-cook’s world.

Baby chickens—poussin, in French, and now commonly called so in gastronomic English—are ideal when cooked whole in a master sauce. The flavors and colors of soy, rice wine, cassia bark, and orange zest penetrate the skin and accentuate the sweet goodness of the flesh.

The poussin can be served hot and freshly pulled from the sauce or left