As much as I love cooking, I don’t—and can’t—cook every day. If you are a home cook, I am sure you understand what I mean. Some days, you wake up, open the refrigerator, look at the ingredients you have, and your mind just goes blank. You either feel like you run out of cooking ideas, don’t know what to cook, don’t feel motivated to cook, or simply don’t want to cook. It happens to me a lot and that’s when I go to the hot food section of Asian grocery stores and buy (”ta pau“/打包) cooked food.
If you live in California, there are plenty of such establishments, where you can get various types of Chinese, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Korean, Vietnamese, or Filipino dishes. The offerings depend on the type of Asian grocery store you go to. I love Chinese food so I usually go to Chinese grocery store to get them…(get mushroom chicken recipe after the jump)
Mushroom chicken or 蘑菇鸡 is one of the dishes I usually get because I love both mushrooms and chicken. It’s nothing fancy, but it goes well with rice. I also love zucchini, which adds texture to the dish. Here is my mushroom chicken recipe—a simple Chinese recipe that you can make at home.
Ingredients:
10 oz. boneless and skinless chicken breast (cut into cubes)
8 oz. zucchini (cut into pieces)
4 oz. mushroom (cut into halves)
1 teaspoon corn starch (to marinate the chicken)
1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
2 tablespoons oil
4 slices peeled ginger
Sauce:
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
3 dashes white pepper powder
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons water plus 1 teaspoon corn starch (to thicken the sauce)
Method:
Marinate the chicken with wine and corn starch. Set aside for 15 minutes. Mix the sauce ingredients and set aside.
Heat up a wok and add oil. Add ginger and saute until aromatic. Add chicken into the wok and stir until the chicken is half-cooked. Add mushrooms and zucchini into the wok and continue to stir-fry. Add the sauce into the wok and do a few quick stirs until the sauce nicely coat the chicken, mushrooms, and zucchini. Cook for 1 minute or until the chicken is cooked. Dish out and serve immediately.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh man I know exactly what you mean. There are days that I end up getting full off of potato chips because I do exactly that, open the fridge, shy away from my items and then go ponder what I want to cook. It’s a crazy world for us home cookers eh?
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Is there a substitute for the Shaoxing wine? I seem to have everything except that 1 teaspoon of wine! Love the simplicity.
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Mike replied:
Medium dry Sherry.
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lovely photos, and a delicious plate, it really looksso yummy and healthy, well done! cheers from london
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Love it! Quick and simple.
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I usually 打包 from Ranch 99 ;p
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Tiga – yes, me too. I also ta pau there, I have one Ranch 99 very close to my house.
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What is Zucchini?
Can anyone tell me?
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Zucchini is Italian squash.
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Mike replied:
Courgette.
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Oh man thanks for the recipe. One serving of this is going to last me 3-4 meals and atleast two trips to ranch 99 :) Thanks!!!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Wu – haha, you are so funny. Yes, I always order mushroom chicken from Ranch 99!
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I’ve had success from time to time replacing Shaoxing wine with brandy. Shaoxing wine isn’t too hard to find though, and in some cases, you could even try asking your local Chinese restaurant if they’ll sell you a bottle. It’s a big tall brown bottle with a red label around it, at least the ones I’ve used look like this.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
You can use dry sherry in place of Shaoxing wine. Good luck.
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Dear Bee Yinn,
I’ve just passed an award on to you. Feel free to come and pick it up over on my blog if you’d like to:
http://dodol-mochi.blogspot.com/
Btw, I’ve been following your blog for almost 2 years! Keep it up!
Cheers from Malaysia!
Pei-Lin
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Your mushroom chicken recipe is amazing! I tried it out last night for dinner and I’m so glad I did and so sad I didn’t find this recipe long before.
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