This Chinese roast chicken recipe is a cross between a roasted chicken & Peking duck, this Peking chicken recipe is for days when you have that craving for a Peking duck, but chicken is all you have to work with
Chicken, love it to pieces! It's easy to find, reasonably priced and takes on the flavors you marinate it in and in this case, it's soy sauce and five spice!
This Peking chicken is super easy to make and just requires a bit of extra time for it to be marinated. Once it has marinated, you can stick it in the oven and voila you have a flavorful and aromatic Peking chicken, your house will smell amazing and it is absolutely delicious with a side of steamed rice or garlic fried rice (sinangag)!
INGREDIENTS FOR PEKING CHICKEN
- Chicken - For this Chinese roast chicken recipe, I used a whole chicken but you can easily switch it up and use chicken drums or chicken legs as well.
- Soy Sauce - I use both light soy sauce and dark soy sauce for this recipe. The dark syrupy soy sauce gives the chicken its dark color and the light soy sauce gives the chicken it's flavor and saltiness. If you cannot find dark soy sauce, you can omit it but you will lose out on the brown coloring on the skin.
- Sugar - I have used sugar, honey and maple syrup in this recipe and it works well with all of them.
- Ginger - I highly recommend using fresh ginger for this recipe. Ground ginger powder doesn't give it the same flavor and I find it too strong.
- Five Spice - For this recipe, I use Chinese five spice powder.
GINGER SCALLION SAUCE (Pairs Wonderfully with Peking Chicken)
This sauce is essentially 4 ingredients (salt, oil, green onions, and ginger) and it packs a lot of flavors. To use it, you would spread the green onion and ginger over the chicken and then eat it! I find it goes amazing mixed in with white rice as well.
You can find detailed instructions on how to make it and what to use this sauce on here: Ginger Scallion Sauce.
4 SIMPLE STEPS TO THE PERFECT PEKING CHICKEN
- Marinate. Dust ½ teaspoon of five spice inside the cavity of the chicken, then combine all the marinating ingredients into a ziplock or a large bowl with the chicken. You want to marinate the chicken for a minimum of 4 hours, preferably overnight.
- Cook the Chicken.
- Remove the chicken from the fridge 30 minutes before putting it in the oven. Stuff the ginger slices that you used for marinating into the chicken.
- Pre-heat the oven, and put the chicken in when it has come up to temperature. I highly suggest using a rack so that there is proper airflow under the chicken to allow it to crisp up a bit. If you don't have a rack, you can crunch up foil into little balls and rest the chicken on top of it.
- Create the Basting Sauce. Cook the remaining marinade over the stovetop and add honey or maple syrup at the very end to sweeten and slightly thicken it.
- Basting. This is where the magic begins. In the first 20 minutes of the roasting, the chicken will release its oil from the skin. Use a brush and baste the chicken with the drippings for the first hour every 20 mins. (If your chicken doesn't have oil drippings, you can use a tablespoon of oil and baste it with that.) After the hour mark, baste the chicken with the basting sauce every 10 minutes, approximately 2-3 times or until the marinade is finished.
HOW DO YOU KNOW THE CHICKEN IS DONE?
Cooking time will always be different and vary for everyone depending on how the oven temperatures are and big the chicken is.
I highly recommend a digital meat thermometer to take the guessing game out of how long to cook meat. Insert the digital thermometer at the thickest part of the chicken, which is usually the thigh.
When I first started using the digital thermometer for chicken, I had a very hard time finding the right spot and I would always insert it between the drums and the thigh which is just...skin! doh! You want to make sure it is inserted into the meat - not the gap between the drum and the thigh. 🙂
I took it out of the oven when it reached 165F (74C). For me, it took about 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach that temperature at 350F (177C).
Let the chicken sit for an additional 10-15 minutes before carving into it to allow the juices to redistribute into the meat, and so you don't burn your fingers. 🙂
The Kitchn has a great read on 'Chicken Still Pink After Cooking? Don't Panic' that explains the safety of the doneness of the chicken.
LOOKING FOR OTHER OVEN ROASTED MEAT RECIPES? TRY THESE!
- Sweet and Sticky Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork)
- Herb Roasted Turkey Legs
- Coffee Rub Roasted Turkey Thighs
- Sweet & Sticky Coca Cola Ribs
- Switch Up Your Sunday Dinner Traditions With These 17 Incredibly Delicious Roasts
NEED A STUFFED ROASTED CHICKEN INSTEAD?
If you are craving a stuffed roasted chicken instead, head on over to The Hungry Bites and try out his 'Greek Whole Stuffed Chicken with Rice and Chestnuts' recipe!
DID YOU MAKE THIS PEKING CHICKEN?
If you made this, I want to see! Follow Pups with Chopsticks on Instagram, snap a photo, and tag and hashtag it with @pupswithchopsticks and #pupswithchopsticks. I love to know what you are making!
Stay connected and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for all of my latest recipes!
Recipe Card
Oven Roasted Five Spice Peking Chicken
Joyce's Recipe Notes
- This chicken pairs amazingly with Ginger Scallion Sauce
- If you have leftover chicken, white rice and ginger scallion sauce the next day, throw it all together in a frying pan with an egg and a bit of soy sauce for a Peking chicken fried rice!
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- ½ teaspoon five-spice powder (for dusting the cavity)
Marinade
- ¼ cup light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce (for the dark brown color)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 5-6 slices ginger
- 1 teaspoon five-spice powder
For Basting Sauce
- Leftover marinade (cooked)
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or honey)
Instructions
Preparations
- Lightly dust the inside of the chicken with ½ tsp of five spice powder
- In a large bowl or ziploc bag, combine the marinade and coat the chicken in it. Marinate for a minimum of 4 hours. (Preferably overnight)
Prepping the Chicken
- Remove the chicken from the fridge 30 minutes prior to cooking it and stuff the chicken with the ginger that it was in the marinade.
- Set up a tray with a rack and set the chicken on it. (If you don't have a rack, you can crunch up foil balls and set the chicken on it, you need airflow to roast the chicken optimally)
- If you are using an external digital thermometer, insert it into the thickest part of the chicken, usually into the thigh without touching the bone. (Not between the drums and the thigh, but the thigh itself)
Making the Basting Sauce
- With the leftover marinade, cook it in a small pot over the stop top for 5-10 minutes on low heat.
- Add in 2 tablespoons of maple syrup or honey at the end to sweeten and thicken it. Set this aside for basting at the end.
Roasting the Chicken
- Pre-heat the oven to 350F (177C)
- Once the oven has reached 350F, place the chicken in the oven.
- After 20 minutes, you should see oil drippings. Baste the chicken with the oil every 20 minutes for an hour. (If you don't get any oil drippings, you can use 1-2 tablespoon of oil and brush it on instead.)
- Once the chicken has cooked in the oven for an hour, start basting it with the basting sauce every 10-15 minutes or until the marinade is used up. (approximately 30 minutes)
- Remove chicken when the temperature hits 165F(74C), which is about 1 hour and 30 minutes of cooking. This may vary depending on the size of the chicken and the stove settings.
- Let the chicken rest for 10-15 minutes before cutting it.
- Enjoy! 🙂
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*
Disclaimer: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. While I appreciate the support – please try to buy your items locally if possible to support your local shops (chances are they are cheaper locally as well!)
Julia says
Amazing recipe! I marinated overnight and it was very flavourful and moist. I didn't have scallions/green onions for the dipping sauce but my garden is overflowing with chives, and it substituted very well!
I want my vegetarian Dad to be able to enjoy it as well so tonight I experimented with using rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms (about 20 of them), coated in cornstarch and fried until crispy, then tossed them in a batch of the marinade (cooked as per recipe & with the maple syrup added) - incredible. He's going to love it.
Thank you for a wonderful recipe I can adapt for the whole family!
Joyce Lee says
Hi Julia!
Yay! I'm so happy you all liked it!
I love how you experimented with dried shiitake mushrooms!! That was such a brilliant idea to pre-fry them as well! I never tried that, but I definitely need to now, thank you for this!
It's funny because I don't always have green onions at home but I always have chives in the garden but I never think to use it! This is genius. My husband thanks you because now he can have this sauce all the time now! haha
I am very happy that I can share this and I am incredibly happy this turned out for everyone! :)]
Kat says
Hi can i use chicken quarters here?
Joyce Lee says
Hi Kat!
Yup! You definitely can, I love using chicken quarters all the time because I love dark meat. You may need to adjust the cooking time since the pieces are smaller than a whole chicken.
Hope this helps!
Joyce
Anna Hill says
I love this , smells, tastes beautiful. I use sweet gem lettuce leaves (instead of pancake wraps)just discovered if you use baby cucumbers which I matchstick they are not as wet as big ones and obviously hoisin sauce to make wraps.
Trying this out today for my in- laws as something different to a roast for them, along with a homemade Chinese pork stir fry with lots of veg!!!!
Joyce Lee says
Hi Anna!
Sounds like you had a fantastic meal lined up! I hope the in-laws enjoyed it too! I do love using baby cucumbers on everything as well because there's so much less moisture and much more crunch it them!
Ed V Miranda says
It taste good .Finally got a new recipe for poultry.
Joyce Lee says
Hi Ed!
Yay so happy you liked this!
Lee Ann says
Very dry. I don’t know why I assumed this would taste like Peking Duck, it was no where close While the skin has some good flavor , the inside was so dry
Diana L says
This recipe looks great! I have not made it yet, but I am struck by the Nutrition Information stating that 1 serving has about 1,200 calories! Perhaps that it for the entire recipe, which is 4 servings?
Joyce Lee says
Hi Diana,
It's for the entire chicken.
The nutritional information is just an estimate of the ingredients being populated into an online calculator, so it is not 100% accurate.
For example, if I have a marinate in a recipe, the calculator will include all of the marinade in the sodium information even though you are technically not eating the marinate and most of it is discarded.
Hope this helps
AC says
I didn’t have time to marinate for 4 hours. Will 2 hours be okay? 🙁
Joyce Lee says
Hi AC!
It should be okay, but you just won't get as much flavor.
If you don't live in a very hot region, and your kitchen is cool you can also leave it out for an hour at room temperature, which will speed up the marination a bit as well. Hope this helps!