Okay, first of all, let’s not mistake this Chicken with Garlic Sauce dish with what’s on your Chinese takeout menu. This is about 99 times better. Trust me on this.
Secondly, winter bamboo is in season. You can now find them in your local Asian market. They are somewhat expensive (prices range from $3 – $6 per pound), as they are imported from China, but it’s SO worth it. Especially for people who’ve never had them before. You need to try it. Live a little, I say.
If you can’t find fresh bamboo, the canned bamboo shoots in water will do just fine.
Thirdly, this chicken and garlic sauce dish is authentic, yet super easy to make. After just some minor chopping, you’re minutes away from a restaurant quality dish. In China, this dish is almost always made with shredded pork. It’s kind of our take on鱼香肉丝 (yu xiang rou si). But today, we will be making it with chicken breast. Chicken is a little more widely used here in the US, and it’s equally delicious.
The dish isn’t quite as spicy as it looks, though you can certainly leave out the dried chilies and the chili oil (for a chili oil recipe, check out our Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup recipe). If you’re curious about the rice in the photo, it’s a mixture of white rice and millet, which is a little healthier and tastes great.
When we visited Chengdu in China’s Sichuan Province two years ago, besides visiting the pandas, we tried many famous native Sichuan dishes. I remember we had this dish in a fancy hotel restaurant, so you could say we’ve tasted it in it’s place of origin. I am very proud of this recipe; we hope you enjoy our Chengdu experience and a taste of China through this dish.
We recommend that you also try another one of our popular Sichuan or Szechuan dish, Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce!
Chicken with Garlic Sauce: Recipe Instructions
Marinate the sliced chicken with salt, cornstarch, and oil. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. For more information and preparing chicken for stir fries, see Bill’s post on Chicken velveting 101.
Before you start cooking, mix together the ingredients for the sauce (light soy sauce, rice vinegar, Shaoxing wine, sugar, and chicken broth) in a small bowl. Set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok over medium heat. Add the dried red chilies, ginger, and garlic, and cook for a minute.
Turn up the heat to high and immediately add the chicken. Stir-fry until the chicken is opaque. Add the winter bamboo shoots, wood-ear mushrooms, and bell pepper. Cook for another 2 minutes.
Add the prepared sauce, and give everything a stir. Bring to a boil.
Add salt to taste, chili oil (if using), and the cornstarch slurry. Stir-fry for 30 seconds, allowing the sauce to thicken. Add the scallions, give everything a final toss, and serve with rice.
We served our chicken with garlic sauce with some jasmine rice mixed with millet, a healthy and tasty combination.
Chicken with Garlic Sauce
Ingredients
For the chicken:
- 10 oz. chicken breast (280g; thinly sliced)
- A pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon oil
For the sauce:
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3/4 cup chicken broth (or water)
Additional Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 12 dried red chilies
- 1 teaspoon ginger (minced)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 small winter bamboo shoot (outer husk peeled, thinly sliced, and then julienned)
- 1 cup reconstituted dried wood-ear mushrooms (julienned)
- 1/2 red bell pepper (thinly sliced)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons chili oil (optional)
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch (mixed into a slurry with 2 tablespoons water)
- 1 scallion (sliced on an angle)
Instructions
- Marinate the sliced chicken with salt, cornstarch, and oil. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- Before you start cooking, mix together the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok over medium heat. Add the dried chilies, ginger, and garlic, and cook for a minute. Turn up the heat to high and immediately add the chicken. Stir-fry until the chicken is opaque.
- Add the bamboo shots, mushrooms, and bell pepper. Cook for another 2 minutes. Add the prepared sauce, and give everything a stir. Bring to a boil. Add salt to taste, chili oil (if using), and the cornstarch slurry. Stir-fry for 30 seconds, allowing the sauce to thicken. Add the scallions, give everything a final toss, and serve with rice.
nutrition facts
I wanted a good garlic sauce and boy oh boy this one did the trick! I followed the sauce exactly and velveted the chicken. Used entirely different veggies but I was wanting a good clean tasting sauce and this was it! Thank you!
Hi Shauna, happy to hear you enjoyed this chicken and garlic sauce :)
This is an amazing recipe. I made this for my family (incl 2 kids), so I left out the chiles. I steamed broccoli and added that at the end, doubling up the sauce, to be sure there was enough for the trees. I also used ordinary, white sliced mushrooms. It came out phenomenally well. Great recipe, thanks!
Excellent Al, keep up the good cooking!
Your yuxiangqiezi looks freat and easy but as i am a late folower, please tell me where to get the garlic sauce recipe. Thank you very much
Hi Jen, not sure what you mean but you can find eggplant with garlic sauce and pork with garlic sauce in our recipe index.
where is the garlic in the garlic sauce
Hi Zaphod, the naming of this classic dish in English is a bit of a misnomer, since garlic is really not the star ingredient. Unlike Sarah’s 40 garlic chicken, where garlic is clearly the star ingredient! ;-)
Could we use regular mushrooms here?
Hi Reena, you can use regular mushrooms instead of wood ears if you can’t find them.
Tasted delicious but with just 4 chili’s way too hot for us.
Hi Lara, do feel free to adjust the number of chilies. Also, you might have dried Thai chilies, which are EXTREMELY hot.
On December 25, many eat Chinese food. And this year, I had time to make it myself. This recipe delivered, and will go into my regular rotation. I added thinly sliced onion with the bell pepper, and I had limited mushroom options and went with shiitake. No chili oil, and no Shaoxing wine (I think it would have benefited from the chili oil, but it was great as it was). Thanks for this! I have my eye on the chicken lo mein next.
So glad that you enjoyed this recipe, Becky. Let us know how you like the Chicken Lo Mein.
This was a treat! I used pork instead of chicken and this really did well.
My chili’s came from the farmer’s market so it was a bit of a crap shoot on how hot they would be… they were plenty hot!
We have just come back from a 2 week tour in China and had this same dish when we were in Chengdu… I think you did a great job capturing it!
Kudos!
Thanks Brian! We had the pork with garlic sauce (cooked in the same way as this chicken with garlic sauce) when we visited in Chengdu – so good!
hi just recently discovered your site..love the family vibe and all the info about pantry, tradition and family ways.
question though. you do not specify which vinegar, white red or black. I know black is what I have and most often use, esp in tandem with the dobandjiang I am addicted to. I just wonder if it is also the usual go to when Chinese vinegar is called for. the white I never see for sale and the red I just ordered from amz via your site.
I am lo fan through and through! am deciding to cook this for supper tonight or the Beijing noodles…..
Hi Essell, you are right about the different types of vinegar! So in general our recipes do state whether we are using rice vinegar – a white or yellow vinegar, red Zhejiang vinegar or black Zhenjiang vinegar. When in doubt, if we don’t specify a color or say rice vinegar, use a lighter rice vinegar. If it is a plain white vinegar, then we usually say it. Hope that helps!