This Cantonese Steamed Chicken and Chinese Sausage recipe may have shown up on your dinner table if you grew up in a Cantonese family. It’s a super tasty dish that’s easy enough for any weeknight.
Why Steam Chicken
You may have never thought to steam chicken before, but it’s such a great way to prepare it. The goal is to give the chicken a silky texture, described as “waat,” in Cantonese. This is achieved by marinating the chicken with tapioca starch or cornstarch.
The chicken also releases a lot of juice into the steaming dish, which creates a thin yet incredibly flavorful sauce that’s irresistible with rice.
While you can make this dish with bone-in chicken (chicken drumettes and flats work well) as well as chicken breast, we think boneless skinless chicken thighs are the best option for both flavor and texture. If you use bone-in chicken pieces, extend the cooking time by 3 or so minutes.
If you’ve enjoyed our other steamed chicken recipe—Steamed Chicken with Mushrooms and Lily Flowers—definitely give this one a go. The lap cheung (also sometimes spelled lop cheong) gives the chicken extra flavor and oomph.
We call for 1-2 links of Chinese sausage (lap cheong), since they do vary in size. However, you may want to err on the side of adding more, so you don’t have to fight with your family for those valuable sausage slices!
Recipe Instructions
Rinse the soaked shiitake mushrooms to remove any grit, and thinly slice them.
In a large bowl, add the chicken, mushrooms, water, vegetable oil, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine, oyster sauce, sugar, salt, white pepper, grated ginger, and the white portions of the scallions.
Mix until most of the liquid is absorbed into the chicken. Set the green portions of the scallions aside. Cover the chicken, and marinate for a minimum of 2 hours, or in the refrigerator overnight.
When you’re ready to cook the dish, let the chicken mixture come up to room temperature. Add the tapioca starch (or cornstarch) until it is uniformly incorporated. At this point, all the liquid should be absorbed into the chicken. There should be little or no standing liquid.
Fill a steamer with enough water to steam continuously for 10 minutes without evaporating. (About 3 inches of water is a safe bet.) Bring to a rolling boil.
Transfer the chicken mixture to a deep plate or pie dish.
Thinly slice the Chinese sausages on an angle, and scatter the slices on top of the chicken.
Carefully place the dish into the steamer, and steam over medium high heat for 10 minutes. Shut off the heat, and leave the chicken in the steamer for another 2 minutes. Sprinkle with green scallions and serve your Cantonese Steamed Chicken with Chinese Sausage immediately! With lots of rice!
Cantonese Steamed Chicken with Chinese Sausage
Ingredients
- 10 medium dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked overnight or for at least 2 hours in hot water, until reconstituted)
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs (trimmed of fat and cut into large bite-sized chunks)
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce (use GF oyster sauce if making this recipe gluten free)
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger (grated)
- 1 scallion (chopped, white and green parts divided)
- 1 tablespoon tapioca starch (or cornstarch)
- 1-2 links Chinese sausage (lap cheung/lop cheong) (if adapting this recipe to be gluten-free, be sure check package ingredients to ensure the sausage contains no gluten)
Instructions
- Rinse the soaked shiitake mushrooms to remove any grit, and thinly slice them.
- In a large bowl, add the chicken, mushrooms, water, vegetable oil, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine, oyster sauce, sugar, salt, white pepper, grated ginger, and the white portions of the scallions.
- Mix until most of the liquid is absorbed into the chicken. Set the green portions of the scallions aside. Cover the chicken, and marinate for a minimum of 2 hours, or in the refrigerator overnight.
- When you’re ready to cook the dish, let the chicken mixture come up to room temperature, and add the tapioca starch (or cornstarch) until it is uniformly incorporated. At this point, all the liquid should be absorbed into the chicken, and there should be little or no standing liquid.
- Fill a steamer with enough water to steam continuously for 10 minutes without evaporating (about 3 inches of water is a safe bet). Bring to a rolling boil.
- Transfer the chicken mixture to a deep plate or pie dish. Thinly slice the Chinese sausages on an angle, and scatter the slices on top of the chicken.
- Carefully place the dish into the steamer, and steam over medium high heat for 10 minutes. Shut off the heat, and leave the chicken in the steamer for another 2 minutes. Sprinkle with green scallions and serve immediately with rice.
Hi! So glad I found your website. I just made this for lunch and it’s soooo good! Flavorful. Our family really enjoyed this dish, especially my husband who loves Chinese food. Thank you for sharing your recipes. Excited to try more of them :)
You’re welcome, Claudine! So glad everyone enjoyed themselves!
Another fantastic dish from TWOL! Will be adding this dish to my rotation of favourite boneless skinless chicken thigh recipes. Very tasty and yummy and enjoyed by all.
Thank you Verna!
Aloha! I have never had this dish before but I knew I just had to try it! I did it tonight using my 10” bamboo steamer that was set on top of my Instant Pot and used the steam setting. Both hubby and I really enjoyed this light dish! Thank you for this awesome recipe ❤️
You’re welcome, Gale! So happy you and your husband enjoyed it!
Love it!
Thanks Jessie!
This is a wonderful dish and my family loves it. Just curious – should you cover the steamer with the lid or let it steam open?
Always steam with a lid on, Erika!
I love all your recipes i sent you a letter before i saw comment had not scrolled down to see comment area ,these recipes are the real thing ,just love this thank you ,,i never did get my ebook ,maybe did not copy ?? Lily
Hi Lily, you can email me at [email protected] for your copy of the eBook if you didn’t get it! (It was linked in our first welcome email, which you should’ve received shortly after you subscribed!)
One of my favourites.
I like to put wood ear and lily flower in there too. ;-)
You definitely can add the lily flowers and wood ears like our classic Steamed chicken recipe.
This is crazy good. This is now a permanent go-to recipe for any occasion! And yes, lots of sausage is compulsory if you don’t want any arguments on who got more!
Hahaha agreed, Suzanne!
Great recipe as always! For anyone making a gluten free version do note shaoxing rice wine has gluten in. You can substitute with dry sherry. (Or other sprit of your choice!)
Thanks for sharing, Al!
You are so right! “This Cantonese Steamed Chicken and Chinese Sausage recipe may have shown up on your dinner table if you grew up in a Cantonese family.” I love this dish! It brings back so many childhood memories of my mother’s dinner table. I am so thankful for your blog and how your bring the comfort food to my generation. I hope when I make this, my own children will have fond memories of it too. Thank you for posting the recipe.
You’re very welcome, Selina, and so happy this recipe was able to bring back memories. :)