Chicken Stewed with Mushrooms
小鸡炖蘑菇
Northeast Chinese comfort stew featuring tender chicken and earthy mushrooms in aromatic broth. A hearty, homestyle dish combining succulent poultry with umami-rich mushrooms and warming spices.
Servings
3-4 people
Prep Time
20 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Spice Level
Mild
Ingredients
Instructions
Thaw chicken in advance, after thawing wash clean, chop off chicken tail and chicken feet and set aside.
Wash dried shiitake mushrooms clean, soak in 1300ml cold water for 3 hours in advance.
Chop the washed clean chicken into small pieces, put in a pan, pour in cold water, add 12g ginger slices and 10g cooking wine, bring to a boil on high heat, skim off foam, blanch with lid open for 1 minute then remove and drain water.
Blanching with lid open helps the fishy smell dissipate.
Remove soaked mushrooms and drain water and set aside, bring the mushroom soaking water to a boil, skim off foam and set aside.
Add appropriate amount of cooking oil to the stir-fry pan, pour in green onion segments, star anise, dried red chili segments and 8g ginger slices and stir-fry until fragrant.
Pour in chicken pieces and stir-fry briefly, then pour 10g cooking wine along the edge of the pan in a circle, stir-fry a few times, then pour in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, white sugar, salt and continue stir-frying for about two minutes.
Use cooking wine to evaporate when it meets the hot pan bottom to remove fishy smell and enhance freshness.
Add about 1000ml hot boiling water from soaking mushrooms, then add mushrooms, cover the lid and start stewing, bring to a boil on high heat then reduce to low heat and stew, just keep the pan boiling continuously.
Just enough water to cover the chicken.
Tip: If adding vermicelli, you need to add more water, soak vermicelli in cold water to soften in advance, add in the last 5 minutes to stew for flavor!
After stewing for 35-40 minutes, before serving add appropriate amount of chicken bouillon, drizzle with appropriate amount of sesame oil, sprinkle with appropriate amount of chopped green onions and stir then serve.
If it's real free-range chicken, you need to stew for about 1 and a half hours, note to add enough water at once, don't add water during cooking.
- The chicken in the recipe can also be made entirely with chicken wings or chicken legs; the taste will be excellent.
- When chopping the chicken pieces, if the bones are easy to chop, then the chicken is the tender type, and you can follow the recipe for water and stewing time. If the chicken bones feel very tough and hard to chop, then it's real free-range chicken, and the stewing time should be more than 1 hour, and you'll need to add more water accordingly.
- This dish can be said to be full of mushroom aroma. All the hot water used for stewing the meat comes from the water used to soak the shiitake mushrooms, so the fresh aroma is much more intense.
- The saltiness in the recipe can be adjusted according to personal taste. You can add less salt first, then taste it after the chicken is stewed, and adjust to the appropriate amount.