Star Anise Chicken
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Star anise chicken combines the warm, aromatic flavors of star anise with tender chicken, creating a rich, savory dish with plenty of delicious sauce.
This is a simple recipe with chicken thighs perfect for weeknight dinners or special meals.
How to make chicken thighs with star anise
Ingredients:
- Protein – Chicken thighs. These are the best parts of chicken. They stay tender and juicy and don’t overcook easily. Go for the bone-in and skin-on (or skinless) for this Dutch oven recipe. Tip: Try our recipe for grilled chicken thighs if you have boneless.
- Seasoning – Salt and black pepper.
- Spices – Whole star anise, fresh ginger.
- Fat – Vegetable, sunflower or cooking olive oil.
- Condiment – Soy sauce
- Liquid – White wine – Cooking wine will do just fine. Chicken stock or vegetable or turkey stock. Bouillon cubes will also work.
- Thickener – Cornstarch
- Vegetable – Leek
Tools and utensils:
- Dutch oven – or any other medium to large pot (I used a 5-quart/5-liter Dutch oven).
- Cutting board and knife
- Strainer – to clean the leeks
- Measuring cups and spoons – Or a scale.
- Wooden spoon
- Fine cheese grater – for the ginger.
- Large bowl or plate – Large enough to hold all the chicken thighs.
- Little bowl or a mug/glass and spoon – For the cornstarch slurry.
Brown seasoned chicken thighs – They don’t have to be literally brown but need to turn from raw pink to white-light brown color. You want to lock all the juices inside. When done, you take them out.
Sautee leek and ginger – This will take about 5 minutes, and you want to stir everything regularly.
Deglaze – At this stage, the bottom of your Dutch oven will have pieces of chicken stuck to it so pour in about a third of the wine and scrape off all the bits.
Cook – Add the chicken back to the pot, pour in the rest of the wine and cook for about 5 minutes. You want to get rid of the alcohol but keep its flavor.
Add the rest of the ingredients – Soy sauce, stock and star anise. Bring to a boil, then reduce and cook on medium-low (must be simmering) for 40 minutes or longer. You want a tender chicken!
Thicken – Use cornstarch diluted in water. You don’t have to take the chicken thighs out. Just move them to one side.
Last thing to do is cook it for about a minute and taste. If you feel some more seasoning is needed, then add it now.
Possible substitutions
- Chicken stock – Use anything you have on hand. Vegetable broth, turkey or bouillon cubes that mix with water. They will all work. Water can be also substituted. Just note that you might need to adjust the taste with some more seasoning.
- Instead of leek, feel free to use white or yellow onion.
What flavor does star anise give?
This spice will give your foods a sweet flavor with a hint of licorice. Similar to anise and cloves it is often added to mulled wine or to flavor rice pudding.
Also, poached pears and star anise go hand in hand. You can make them in the slow cooker and refrigerate them until ready to serve.
What to serve with star anise chicken?
Rice – My favorite way to make it is in an instant pot. Have you tried coconut rice? It is so good!
Couscous – Another option!
You can also do roasted potatoes, but I feel that the rice works the best, especially with the sauce.
Julia’s tips and notes:
- When I was developing this recipe, all I wanted was a ton of sauce to go with this star anise chicken. A flavorful gravy that I can pour over the meat and rice. I hope you like it as much as I do. It is an easy recipe with minimal ingredients if we don’t count the seasoning and oil.
- Cooking time can vary depending on how tender you would like the chicken thighs to be. The minimal internal temperature should reach 165°F (74°C) but don’t stop there. Cooking it low and slow is a great way to achieve extra tender meat.
More easy chicken thigh recipes:
- Air Fryer Chicken Thighs
- Instant Pot Chicken Paprikash – One of the most-loved recipes by our readers!
- Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs
- Chicken Thighs with Creamy Sauce
Star Anise Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 pounds chicken thighs (bone-in, skinless, 1400 grams), see note 1
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper or to taste
- 2 tablespoons oil (see note 2)
- 1 leek (halved and sliced), see note 3
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger (finely grated, about 1 inch)
- 1 cup cooking white wine (240 milliliters), see note 4
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 cup chicken stock (240 milliliters), see note 5
- 1 whole star anise
- 1-2 tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven or pot, heat oil and add seasoned chicken thighs. Let them brown on both sides, about 5-8 minutes in total. When ready, transfer them onto a plate.
- To the Dutch oven, add leek and ginger, and sauté for about 3-4 minutes, stirring often. Deglaze with 1/3 of the white wine making sure to remove all the stuck pieces from the bottom of the pot.
- Add the rest of the wine, soy sauce and chicken stock. Put the chicken thighs back in.
- Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 35 minutes or until tender.
- Remove the lid, move the chicken to one side and pour in cornstarch slurry (2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons cold water. To this add 2 tablespoons of the sauce to temper it). Stir until you see the sauce thickening. Let cook for about a minute before turning off the heat.
- Remove the star anise and serve.
Notes
- Use either boneless or skin-on. When using skin-on thighs, put their skin side down first and let the skin brown quite a bit before turning them over.
- You can use vegetable, sunflower, avocado or regular cooking olive oil.
- About 2 cups of sliced leek. You can substitute it with onion. If you do, use 1 medium onion.
- You can use any type. I use semi-sweet.
- Turkey stock, vegetable broth or bouillon cubes will all work.