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Chicken Stew Recipe
This chicken stew is a classic Chinese-Cantonese recipe that is hearty, delicious and great through the year, especially during winter.
When the temperature dips, chicken stew is my favorite goto food, especially if it’s made in a Chinese claypot.
This easy chicken stew recipe is made with chicken, black fungus in a savory brown sauce.
Black fungus is a popular ingredient in Chinese recipes.
Black fungus are similar to shiitake mushrooms, except that the texture is thinner but every bite is a snappy crunch.
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Chicken Stew Ingredients
Stew chicken calls for the following ingredients:
- Chicken
- Ginger
- Oyster sauce
- Chinese cooking wine
- Sesame oil
- Black fungus or shiitake mushrooms
- Scallion
How to Make Stew Chicken?
It’s so easy to make chicken stew. The cooking process is effortless.
All you have to do is add all the ingredients in a claypot, add some liquid, cover the lid and let the claypot does its magic.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is a Chinese Claypot?
Claypot is a made from clay found only in China. It cooks well with a direct flame or direct contact with an electric burner.
Chicken stew in these pots represent an authentic part of Chinese cuisine. Known as 砂锅，or “sandy pots,” it comes with a sandy exterior.
Claypot produces hearty, easy and delicious meals, and it’s one of the least expensive utensils to invest in any kitchen.
What Other Cookware Can I Use for Chicken Stew?
If you don’t have a claypot, you can stew chicken using a Dutch oven, a ceramic pot, a skillet with a lid, a slow cooker or an Instant pot!
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 343 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
Serve stew chicken with steamed rice. For a wholesome Chinese meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Chinese Chicken Stew
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tablespoons oil
- 1 inch ginger, peeled and sliced into thin pieces
- 8 oz. chicken thigh or chicken leg, cut into pieces
- 2-3 pieces dried black fungus or cloud ear (soaked in warm water and cut into pieces)
- 2 stalks scallions (cut into 2-inch lengths)
Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 3 dashes white pepper
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- Pinch salt
- 1/2 tablespoon shaoxing wine (optional)
- 5 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Combine all the Sauce ingredients in a bowl, stir to mix well. Set aside.
- Heat up a Chinese claypot on high heat. (You may use a skillet or wok.)
- Add the oil into the claypot. When the oil is heated, add the ginger and stir fry until aromatic. Add the chicken and stir continuously until the meat turns opaque.
- Add the black fungus, stir to combine well. Add the sauce, stir to coat well with the chicken. Turn the heat to low, cover the pot and simmer on low heat, for about 10 minutes, or until the chicken has become tender. If the sauce dries up, add some water to dilute the sauce. Right before serving, stir in the scallions. Serve warm with steamed rice.
Notes
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Black fungus is nothing like shitake, which is a classic sort of mushroom while black fungus is a shelf type mushroom. The tastes and texture are different, too, but both are absolutely delicious. Black mushrooms, often known as wood ear, tree ear, or cloud ear, don’t really have a ton of taste–what taste there is subtle and very good. They have a marvelous crunchy texture that holds up through cooking. This “stew” is a delicious dish, and we enjoyed it very much, even though we lack a clay pot and I did it in a 3 qt sauce pan.
Thanks for trying.
I wonder if a Chinese ceramic double boiler can be used for this. This is a pot that I use to make chicken extract. It is wonderful. Thanks, Bee.
Thanks.
Thanks for this easy chicken recipe. Cooked it for the family teamed with Chinese broccoli/oyster sauce and lotus root soup. Made the family very happy & satisfied.
Thanks.
I never thought of making it into a “stew”.
I usually marinade my chicken (thighs, breast or just wings) for a couple of hrs,
I add shiitake mushrooms, lily bulbs and dried red dates to my ingredients.
Place everything on to a rimmed steam proof plate and steam on high for about 25 =30 mins.
Serve with steamed rice and a plate of greens.
Thanks, Wayman.
I prepared this dish today with white rice and vegetables on the side. It was very easy to make and it tasted wonderful! The only deviation from the recipe was that I used ca. 15 pcs of cloud ears as 2-3 pcs seemed not enough. Perhaps my cloud ears were tiny and you have large ones? Anyway, thanks a lot for this nice recipe. I will surely prepare it more often.
Awesome please try more recipes on my site!
My black fungus still hard. What happen?
Did you soak them in water before cooking?
Can we add some vegetables like cabbage in it?
Yes, you can.
wants to buy chinese stew ingredients. thanks.
This is a great discovery, for me the mere mention of fungus makes me sick but after seeing the picture of the dish changed everything. Thanks for sharing this recipe with me.
This recipe is soooooooo easy!
Tried it last night and the family loved it!
Will do it again with just mid-joints.