Chinese home style braised chicken with dried shiitake mushrooms with noodles.This popular Chinese style braised chicken is quite freestyle, almost welcome in every family. And it is on my top list in cold winter days.
Dried Shiitake Mushrooms (干香菇) is made from fresh shiitake mushroom, either by natural drying or smoking. Due to the chemical reactions during the drying process, dried shiitake mushrooms are much aromatic than fresh shiitake mushrooms, but obviously less fresh and fertile. So, dried mushrooms are more popular in braised dishes, soups and stews, as we want to have more flavors released and attached to other ingredients. Fresh shiitake mushrooms are more popular in stir-fries, as they need to be fertile itself. Adding too much dried shiitake mushroom might make the dish slightly bitter. So I find a balance and mix the two types together with this braised chicken.
Braising is a very common cooking method in Chinese cuisine. The ingredients are stewed with a smaller amount of water after browned with ginger, green onion and garlic. Spices are always added in this step to help remove the “raw smell” from the chicken and bring other interesting flavors. Adding noodles to braised dish is a very northern habit like the famous Da Pan Ji. In winter days, one pot dish is quite convenient and well balanced in nutrition. I promise you will get the yummiest noodles in your life with this dish as we have concentrate chicken stock as the soup base.
Cook’s note
- Choose tender chicken. Do not use old hems, they are for soups only.
- Keep the liquid for soaking the shiitake mushrooms, it is rich in flavor. Rinse the mushrooms under running water to remove the sands on surface.Transfer to a pot or bowl and add enough warm water to cover, wait for 2-3 minutes and slightly squeeze the mushrooms to remove the dirt completely.Transfer the mushrooms to a clean bowl and then re-add enough warm water to cover. Soak until the mushrooms becomes soft. Strain and save the liquid.
- You can skip the spices to produce a purer taste or use even more types to yield a more complex taste. For example, for a slightly hotter version, you can add 3-4 dried chili peppers. We do not have strict limitation on that. However do not overuse your spices to avoid any dominating flavors.
- If you do not want to use any noodles in the dish, you can cook off more water in the dish for a stronger taste. If noodles are added, remember to keep some liquid since the noodle absorbs water even after cooked.
- Both vermicelli and fresh noodles can work for this recipe.
Ingredients
- A whole young chicken (around 1000g), cut into one bite sizes
- 6-8 middle size dried shiitake mushrooms, pre-hydrated and then cut into small chunks
- 2 tbsp. cooking oil
- 1 thumb ginger, sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 2 scallions white, cut into small sections
- 1 tbsp. cooking wine
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- Hot water for simmering
- 1 tbsp. rock sugar
- 2 tsp. salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp. white pepper
- Pre-soaked vermicelli noodles or rice sticks
- 10 fresh shiitake mushrooms, cut into one bite size
- 1/2 cup of finely chopped scallions
- 1/2 cup of finely chopped corianders (optional)
Spices
- 2 star anise
- 1 bay leaves
- 1 dried tangerine Peel
- 1 Amomum Cardamomum pod (砂仁)
- 1 Amomum tsaoko (草果)
Steps
Cut the chicken into small chunks and then cook in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Transfer the chicken out and clean with warm water. Drain and set aside.
Heat up 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a claypot or stewing pot, fry garlic, ginger and scallion until aromatic over slow fire. Add chicken chunks in and fry until slightly browned. Add cooking wine and light soy sauce, continue frying for 1 to 2 minutes.Add spices and rock sugar.
Cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until the chicken is soft enough. Season with salt and white pepper.
Add fresh mushrooms in, cook for 5 minutes and then place the pre-soaked noodles in. Cook for 2 minutes and serve with green onions.
Braised Chicken with Dried Mushrooms
Ingredients
- A whole young chicken ,around 1000g, cut into one bite sizes
- 6-8 middle size dried shiitake mushrooms ,pre-hydrated and then cut into small chunks
- 2 tbsp. cooking oil
- 1 thumb ginger ,sliced
- 3 cloves garlic ,sliced
- 2 scallions white ,cut into small sections
- 1 tbsp. cooking wine
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- Hot water for simmering
- 1 tbsp. rock sugar
- 2 tsp. salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp. white pepper
Spices
- 2 star anise
- 1 bay leaves
- 1 dried tangerine Peel
- 1 Amomum Cardamomum pod ,砂仁
- 1 Amomum tsaoko ,草果
Others
- Pre-soaked vermicelli noodles or rice sticks
- 10 fresh shiitake mushrooms ,cut into one bite size
- 1/2 cup of finely chopped scallions
- 1/2 cup of finely chopped corianders ,optional
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into small chunks and then cook in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Transfer the chicken out and clean with warm water. Drain and set aside.
- Heat up 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a claypot or stewing pot, fry garlic, ginger and scallion until aromatic over slow fire. Add chicken chunks in and fry until slightly browned. Add cooking wine and light soy sauce, continue frying for 1 to 2 minutes.Add spices and rock sugar.
- Pour in enough hot water to cover the chicken chunks and the water level should be at last 3 cm higher if you plan to cook noodles in the dish. Otherwise, use water to cover the chickens.
- Cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until the chicken is soft enough. Season with salt and white pepper.
- Add fresh mushrooms in, cook for 5 minutes and then place the pre-soaked noodles in. Cook for 2 minutes and serve with green onions
Notes
Nutrition
Hi Elaine,
I love the blog and I’m really looking forward to trying out these recipes. The focus on technique is very helpful because I am a western trained cook and it is very difficult for me to break my training. I’m an expat living in Suzhou, Jiangsu (jiangnan food is not very good) but Sichuan food is my favorite Chinese cuisine. I’ve been trying to learn Chinese cooking techniques for a while and this site combines both my favorite Chinese food with a nice how to guide. Keep up the good work!
A quick question about step 4. Just how brown should that chicken be? Are you just adding a little color to the skin or are you going for a full sear? Just wondering because I’m worried about burning the garlic in that step.
Best,
Zhou
Hi Zhou,
Honestly I am touched by your words. That’s my purpose to combine some of Chinese eating culture and technique to my recipes. You read my heart!
As for your question, during the stir fry process, keep stirring and the garlic is safe. And for the color, just a little color is required. This step is planed to arouse the aroma of chicken. So move to next step whenever you smell the taste of chicken meat.
Hi Elaine,
I made this the other day after I finally got around to buying a chopping knife that could deal with the bones. I still have to get used to it, but in doubt I prefer to double check where my fingers are before chopping down 🙂
Now unfortunately a “whole chicken” around here is sold without head, neck and feet, but it tasted great nevertheless.
Your post about buying the right shiitake mushrooms helped a lot, too as they differ widely in quality and I think for this recipe it’s absolutely essential to get high quality ones.
By the way, may I humbly suggest you do a video at some point on how you cut up a whole chicken? Now cutting at the joints is quite obvious, but I would be really interested in how you proceed afterwards and what tools you use.
Hi Elaine,
just by chance I noticed, that you updated this recipe significantly. The “old” version didn’t use the noodles, the fresh mushrooms and less spices if I recall correctly. Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate that you update even the old recipes and I admire the amount of work that this must cost you as well as the level of dedication and professionalism this shows.
I think It would be great if you could come up with a way to make updates of recipes more “visible” on your site,
Now I do get the newsletter, but somehow that doesn’t really catch my attention, probably because the mails come in at times when I’m not thinking about cooking 🙂 And I tend to forget them quite fast.
Now obviously I have to try out this variant, too…
Hi Elaine,
I made this today following the revised version, and it tasted really great. I love the combination of the fresh and dried mushrooms. Also the spices make the dish a lot more complex in taste.
In my opinion it would be a real shame to leave the carrots out. They give an extra bit of sweetness.
Now what I’m really confused about is the choice of noodles. When I first saw the pictures I thought them to be sweet potato starch noodles. The list of ingredients says “rice sticks” and I went with those, but the ones I got (very thin ones) didn’t really stand out in the dish.
I have never really seen rice starch based noodles that had this kind of transparency, as opposed to the ones made from mung bean or sweet potato starch. Unfortunately the term vermicielli is quite broad and for someone used to the Italian style noodles of the same name quite confusing.
I’d be delighted if you could shed some light on your choice of noodles for this dish.
A merry Christmas to you and your family
Hi Elaine! I am making this yummy soup but I don’t know what is the spice TSAOKO. Please give me an easier name.
Thanks.
It is Cao Guo (草果), sometimes called Red Cardamom.