Our son, Chayton, is just going on nine months and so I didn’t feel the need to decorate fancy eggs or prepare many Easter treats. In fact, at his play group Easter party last Tuesday, Chayton was more interested in the paper bag holding his treats than the actual treats (and yes, he ate a few pieces of the bag!) However, I still needed something special for us to enjoy Easter morning. After all, it is Chayton’s first Easter. So I decided to make soy sauce eggs.

These are simple to make and taste wonderful. Usually, you make the soy sauce chicken marinade and cook your chicken in it first. Then you throw in a few hard boiled eggs (shelled) to soak up the sauce. At that point the sauce is diluted with juices from the chicken and so you have to marinate the eggs for a few hours to get dark, salty eggs. I found that I didn’t have to soak these eggs very long at all before the eggs got real dark- almost chocolate brown. To get solid dark eggs, peel all of the shell. For the marble look, crack the shell all over and soak them in the marinade with the shell still on. Marinate for half an hour or until your desired color. If you’ve cooked chicken in the marinade first, marinate for an hour or two.

Soy Sauce Chicken & Eggs

I recommend using one-quarter of this marinade if you’re only making soy sauce eggs.

4 cups mushroom soy sauce

3 cups water

1 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup sugar

5 thin slices fresh ginger

4 star anise

3-pound whole broiler-fryer chicken

spring onion

parsley

Heat soy sauce, water, wine, sugar, ginger root and star anise to boiling in Dutch oven. Add the chicken; heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low.; cover and simmer 30 minutes or until done, turning the chicken and stirring the mixture 2 or 3 times.

Remove chicken from soy sauce mixture; let chicken stand for 20 minutes. Chop chicken with cleaver into 2 -1 inch pieces. Arrange pieces on serving platter in the shape of a chicken and garnish with spring onions and/or parsley.

Once sauce has cooled a bit, place hard boiled eggs (shelled) in the mixture and allow to marinade until desired intensity. Enjoy!

Resource:

Tlusty, L. (1981). Betty Crocker’s New Chinese Cookbook. New York,NY: Prentice Hall General Reference.