Eliot's Braised Chicken & Shiitake Mushrooms
This recipe comes to us from team member Eliot over at Cannings Kew and we guarantee it will blow you away! This dish contains some chilli, but it's not super spicy (this could be adjusted to be more or less hot if you use more or less chilli). Like those of us who tasted this dish - you'll be coming back for seconds!!
Ingredients
Marinade:
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp ShaoXing cooking wine
¼ tsp salt
1tsp sugar
½ tsp ground white pepper
½ an egg
1 ½ tsp cornflour
Stir fry ingredients:
1 tbsp oil
5 good sized cloves garlic
5 slices ginger
5 dried shiitake mushrooms
4 de-boned chicken chops (or 5 chicken thighs if you prefer)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp cornflour
3 tsp water
1 red chilli (for presentation, skip if you prefer)
Coriander for garnish
Method
- Soak mushrooms in warm water for 30 minutes (weigh them down so they don't float if necessary). While these are soaking, combine marinade ingredients, mixing thoroughly and set aside.
- Cut each piece of chicken into quarters and marinate for 30 minutes (you can also leave the meat to marinate in the fridge overnight).
- Peel the garlic and roughly chop the chilli.
- Squeeze the water out of the mushrooms, keeping around 500ml of the mushroom water (very important as this is going to be the flavour base for the sauce!). Chop the mushroom stems off and cut each of the mushrooms in half.
- Add oil into a pan (or wok) over medium heat. When the oil is heated, add mushrooms, garlic and ginger for quick stir-frying. Make sure each piece you add is coated in oil but be careful not to overcook!
- After about 2-3 minutes, brown the chicken in the pan, then stir in oyster sauce.
- Pour half of the mushroom water into the pan and lid cover with a lid.
- After the sauce has partially reduced (not entirely), remove the lid and turn back to medium heat, then pour the rest of the mushroom water in the pan to reduce again.
- Mix the cornflour and water in a small cup until smooth and lump-free, then pour into the pan to thicken the sauce (remember to stir all the ingredients after you pour the cornflour water in to avoid ending up with a lumpy texture).
- Add chopped chilli into the pan as sauce thickens.
- When the sauce reaches your desired consistency (or a little before as it will continue to thicken slightly off the heat) transfer it into the plate and garnish with chopped coriander.
- Serve with rice and enjoy!
