I came up with this Chinese Braised Chicken w/ Mushrooms dish after visiting the Jade Temple (玉佛寺) in Shanghai. The temple got its name from the two jade buddhas that “live” there, each carved from a complete piece of jade and “invited” from Myanmar in the late 1800s.
If you find yourself in Shanghai, you have to go there.
Reason 1:
You’ll get the experience of seeing a working buddhist temple.
Reason 2?
Noodles.
After you pay a visit to both buddhas, stop at Jade Temple’s kitchen, where they crank out cheap vegetarian dishes. They’re most well-known for their noodle soups. Order a bowl of their Braised Double Mushroom Noodle Soup and you won’t be sorry. Kaitlin gets weekly cravings for it. Last summer, she got noodle fever and made us all get on a 5-hour high speed train from Beijing to Shanghai for that bowl of noodle soup. That’s how good it is!
Here is their address and phone number: 玉佛寺 / 上海 普陀区 江宁路999号/ 02162665596. Just copy it and give it to the taxi driver!
So, inspired by the braised mushrooms that top those noodles, I made this Chinese braised chicken with mushrooms.
Recipe Instructions
Heat the 2 tablespoons oil in your wok over medium heat. Add the ginger and let it cook for about a minute until fragrant. Then turn up the heat to high and add the chicken. Keep stirring until the chicken is browned, and add the soaked dried shiitake mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms. Keep stirring for another couple minutes.
Then add Shaoxing wine, sugar, soy sauce, and dark soy sauce; mix everything well. Lastly, add 1 to 1 ¼ cup of the water you used to soak the mushrooms. Bring the liquid to a boil, cover the wok, and simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes, or until the sauce is thick and gooey.
Make sure to stir occasionally, and remember to keep the heat low and add more water if you like a lot of sauce. Stir in the scallions, and you’re done!
Serve your Chinese Braised Chicken with Mushrooms with lots of rice and a green vegetable!
Chinese Braised Chicken with Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 3 slices ginger (julienned)
- 1 ¼ lbs chicken drumettes (570g)
- 10 large dried shiitake mushrooms (rinsed and soaked in 2 cups of warm water for 2-4 hours until soft. Reserve soaking liquid! If using smaller mushrooms, use 15-20)
- ¾ cup dried wood ear mushrooms (rinsed and soaked)
- ¼ cup Shaoxing wine
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 cup water from soaking the mushrooms
- 1 scallion (sliced)
Instructions
- Heat the 2 tablespoons oil in your wok over medium heat. Add the ginger and let it cook for about a minute until fragrant. Then turn up the heat to high and add the chicken. Keep stirring until the chicken is browned, and add the soaked shiitake and wood ear mushrooms. Keep stirring for another couple minutes.
- Then add cooking wine, sugar, soy sauce, and dark soy sauce; mix everything well. Lastly, add 1 to 1 ¼ cup of the water you used to soak the mushrooms. Bring the liquid to a boil, cover the wok, and simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes, or until the sauce is thick and gooey. Make sure to stir occasionally, and remember to keep the heat low and add more water if you like a lot of sauce.
- Finally, stir in the scallions until they're wilted. Serve!
Very flavorful! But I could not get the sauce to reduce, no matter how I tried. Also, was I really supposed to have a quart of wood ears, once hydrated? It seemed like an enormous amount. I used about 3 cups. But I must say they were delicious.
Hi Cheryl, please feel free to use less water next time if you are having trouble reducing the sauce. The amount of wood ear is correct, they are my favorite part of this dish :-)
I would like to try to adapt this for the instant pot, would that be possible and do you have any suggested adjustments?
Hi Sonia, it’s hard for me to say without trying it.
Where can i get wood ear mushrooms or any chinese mushrooms? Any help would be great thanks in advance
Hi Mark, please google search “Asian market near me” and hope there is one near you. If not, try to search for them online.
I made this today! The flavor was really rich. Personally I liked the mushrooms more than the chicken. It seems they absorbed the flavor much more and I love the texture just in general. However, even after almost two hours of braising, the sauce never really thickened up. I followed the recipe except but I used a regular pan not a wok. Could that be why?
Hi Lana, that could be the problem, because thick bottomed pans reduce liquid much slower. Sounds like you need to reduce the liquid so the sauce thickens and coats the mushrooms and chicken. Also, less liquid means more concentrated flavor.
Hi Judy! I’ve made this dish using thighs and it was so easy to make while the flavours were amazing. I’ve followed the recipe exactly but found my chicken to be rather dry instead of moist and tender. What must have went wrong?
Hi Ally, this recipe is based on using chicken winglets. Sounds like you have to increase the cooking time with chicken thighs.
Looks delicious, Judy! Very similar to Fuchsia Dunlop’s braised chicken and mushrooms, which I make all the time.
I’m curious about the original braised mushroom soup inspiration though: What was it like? Soup noodles? Was the broth dark and mushroom-based, or clear with the braised mushrooms on top?
Hi Jesse, the original braised mushroom noodle soup involves a clear soup base with a braised mushroom mixture spooned over the top. I really want to know how they make the clear soup base, because it is very good.
Hi Judy, if I use double the amount of chicken that are regular size drumsticks, thighs, and drumlettes with wings attached, then would I double the amount of ingredients and same cooking time?
Hi Esther, you should definitely double the amount of ingredients. As to the cooking time, I think you will need slightly more time, but not by much.
Hi Judy,
Can I use regular size chicken pieces, like drumstick, thighs, wings and drumettes attached together? Would the cooking time be the same?
Hi Ester, this is one of my favorite dishes, and I am so happy that you are making it. If you are in the US where the drumsticks are huge and the wings are meaty, please increase the simmering time to at least one hour. The chicken should be tender, and the sauce should be gooey. Best to use dark meat for long simmering dishes like this one :-)
Can I use wings instead?
Of course, Mei, that’s what I used for this post.