Super easy Chinese steamed chicken with ginger and green onion which only requires 10 minutes of preparation. Matched with a fabulous oyster sauce-based sauce.
Steaming might be the easiest way of cooking chicken. Steaming is a really popular cooking method in every Chinese kitchen. Steamed dishes are simple, quick, and always tender in texture. Simply marinate the chicken chunks for minutes to obtain a basic flavor, then transfer them to a steamer and steam. That’s so simple. I have made this steamed chicken recipe several times this summer.
Why steaming
People in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces love to serve this chicken directly since the steamed chicken keeps the natural taste of a high-quality chicken. There are lots of umami components in chicken meat. Steaming can preserve the flavor to the maximum.
Ingredients needed
- Organic younger chicken: younger chicken is commonly used in steamed dishes, stir-fried or poached chicken.
- green onion: also known as spring onion. It helps to enhance the flavor and move the raw taste of the chicken. Green onions can be replaced by scallions.
- ginger: ginger is an important aromatic for food that use fewer seasonings. It helps to remove the raw taste.
- Shaoxing wine: also known as Chinese cooking wine. It is widely used in meat dishes. You can substitute with dry sherry if desired.
- salt to taste: since we will serve with a dipping sauce, spare the salt amount to make the chicken meat refreshing.
- light soy sauce: light soy sauce gives a basic Umami flavor to the chicken.
The oyster-based sauce
I developed this oyster-based dipping sauce for this super simple steamed chicken. Oyster sauce is a savory, thick paste sauce popular in southern China. It goes super well with blanched vegetables and proteins. The reason why I choose an oyster sauce-based sauce is because of the thick paste texture, making it working not as a regular dipping sauce but as a lovely thick coating. This will form a very strong comparison with the juicy and tender steamed chicken.
Instructions
Spread the marinating sauce evenly on the cleaned chicken—every place. Put ginger and green onion shreds on top and marinate at least for 30 minutes. If you are not in a hurry, I would suggest preparing the chicken in the morning and making this as lunch or dinner.
Steaming Tips
- If you get a rice cooker, you can choose to steam this along with the steamed rice. Simply get a rice cooker steamer. It’s a lovely idea to save energy and time.
- Or you can also choose to steam this in a regular steamer for around 20 minutes.
Chinese Steamed Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- Half of a whole chicken , around 1 and 1/2 pound
- 1 tbsp. ginger shreds
- 1 tbsp. green onion shreds , white part
Marinating sauce
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1 tsp. Chinese cooking wine
- 1/2 tsp. salt
Dip sauce
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 4 tbsp. water
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbsp. chopped green onions
- 1 tbsp. sesame oil
Instructions
- Clean the chicken and then spread the marinating sauce evenly on both sides.
- Lay ginger shreds and green onion shreds over to marinate at least 30 minutes. Then place in your steamer. I am using the steamer of my electric rice cooker. If you are using a steamer with wok or pot, steam with high fire around 20 minutes until soft (or you can easily insert a chop sticker in). Transfer out and cut into chunks of your favorite size. Decorate with green onions.
Dipping sauce
- In a sauce pan, heat up 1 tablespoon sesame oil and stir fry chopped garlic and green onion until aroma. And then add oyster sauce, light soy sauce and water. Mix well and bring all the content to a boiling. Transfer to dipping bowl and cool down a little bit.
- Serve steamed chicken with dipping sauce.
Nutrition
Wow this steamed chicken definitely takes me back to my childhood.. my Chinese grandfather would always make something similar for me. Thanks for reminding me how delicious Chinese chicken is, definitely need to recreate the recipe asap!
Thanks Thalia,
Try it and I hope you love it the same as me too.
I have really been into chicken But when I saw this recipe for steamed chicken. I thought give it ago. What can I say but yummy yummy and a big thank you. Regards Peter
Thanks Peter for your lovely feedback. I feel so honored and happy to know that you love this recipe.
Really yummy. Fist time I tried it….Thanx
Thanks Parmjit for your feedback. Glad to konw you like it.
I love this recipe! Such a quick and easy take on Steamed Chicken. Thanks for sharing 🙂
You are the most welcome. Faith. Happy cooking ahead.
any chicken recipes walcojme…especially steamed chicken and interesting sauces
This sauce has been one of my favorite non-spicy dipping sauce for proteins. I hope you like it as me too.
In your photos why does your “steamed chicken” have browned crispy looking skin??? you’ve got a special steamer for sure haha
Hi Scott,
I have not found that out previously. I just steamed the chicken along with rice in my rice cooker. May be the color is from the soy sauce.
The chicken doesn’t look crispy to me, but it’s definitely much yellower than chicken available in the US. I suspect this is corn fed chicken which I have read makes the chicken skin yellow.
Hi.. would love to try this one.. is there a substitute for cooking wine?
Hi Joanna,
For this recipe, cooking wine is quite necessary. But if you do not want to bother buying one bottle, try dry sherry.
Thanks a lot,Elaine 🙂 will try this out today..
You are the most welcome! Happy cooking!
My husband is northern chinese and he and his family are FUSSY when it comes to foreigners (me) cooking chinese food. I made this and Bam! Instant respect ? thanks alot, I will make this recipe forever now
I’ve tried your recipe, really simple but very good. I’ve manage to get the juicy chicken. But what I don’t understand is why in your picture the steamed chicken is kinda yellowish on the skin whole mine is really plain white. Did you add something aside from the marinade recipe you wrote? Also I marinade the chicken 30 minutes but it came out not salty enough. Should I add more time to marinade it?
Hi Zelig,
I believe the color is bought by the soy sauce. If you want a dark color, you can use dark soy sauce. Besides, if you want to have a stronger taste, you can poke some small holes before marinating and lengthen the marinating time. It tastes fine for me when served with the dip.