We have posted a lot of childhood dishes here on The Woks of Life, but this Steamed Chicken with Mushrooms & Dried Lily Flowers is one of the most memorable dishes my mother used to make for us when I was growing up.
I was thinking about why I don’t make this steamed chicken dish more often these days, and I realized…as a food blogger, there just aren’t enough meals in the day!
Childhood Memories of This Recipe
I remember that my mother used to call this “steamed slippery chicken,” which is a word-for-word translation from Cantonese. The chicken is marinated in cornstarch, and after it’s been steamed, it has a silky, luxurious texture.
My two older sisters and I always had smiles on our faces when we saw her preparing it for dinner. The method of marinating the chicken with corn starch prior to steaming, results in this silky texture and is also used in our Chicken and Mushroom Clay Pot Rice recipe.
The dried shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, and dried lily flowers yield an earthy flavor to complement the chicken. After the dish has been steamed, you’ll also get a delicious, broth-like sauce that’s heavenly over rice.
Judy has been reminding me that I should post this recipe for everyone to enjoy, so here it finally is.
What Cut of Chicken to Use
One small adjustment I made is to use boneless chicken thighs instead of chicken on the bone like my mother used to make. The Chinese love using chicken on the bone, because it yields tastier results.
However, chopping the chicken into small pieces can create little fragments of bone that—admittedly—can cause a slightly unpleasant dining experience. I ended up buying chicken thighs and deboning them myself so I could leave the skin on. That said, you can buy boneless skinless chicken thighs if you don’t want to do all that work!
One additional word about the chicken skin, is that Chinese generally prefer chicken on the bone with the skin. In some cases, like the Cantonese Poached Chicken – Bai Qie Ji, the chicken skin is an added feature of the dish!
To maximize flavor, I left the skin on the chicken for this steamed chicken dish, but feel free to use boneless and skinless chicken if you want a healthier, lower fat dish.
Ultimately, this dish is quite easy to make, but there are a few tricks to making it great. So read on and get cooking!
Recipe Instructions
Take the dried wood ear mushrooms, dried lily flowers, and dried shiitake mushrooms, and rinse them all separately under running water to make sure any dirt or dust particles are rinsed away. After cleaning, cut off the tough bottom portion of the lily flowers.
Cut off the mushroom stems as well, which will speed up the soaking process. (Note: depending on the type and brand of dried mushrooms you have on hand, soaking times may vary. We have more tips in the mushroom section of our Chinese Dry and Preserved Ingredients Page.)
Transfer the wood ears, lily flowers, and mushrooms to three separate bowls filled with water, and soak for one to two hours. Use a plate to cover and press each of the dried ingredients down to ensure they are fully rehydrated.
Once reconstituted, roughly chop the wood ears. Squeeze some of the excess water from the mushrooms, and slice each one into quarter-inch thick slices. Be sure to squeeze the lily flowers dry as well.
Place the chicken, wood ears, mushrooms, lily flowers, water or chicken stock, vegetable oil, sesame oil, rice wine (if using), oyster sauce, sugar, salt, freshly ground white pepper, grated ginger, and the white portions of the scallions into a bowl. 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. Mix in the cornstarch until it is uniformly incorporated. At this point, all of the liquid should be absorbed into the chicken, and there should be little or no standing liquid.
Transfer the mixture to a deep plate or pie dish, and sprinkle half of the green portion of the scallions over the top.
Place in a covered 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. See our post on how to set up a steamer if you’re not familiar with steaming foods in Chinese cooking.
Carefully remove the cover from the steamer, taking care not to drip any water from the cover onto your steamed chicken dish. Sprinkle the rest of the scallions over the top.
Serve this steamed chicken with mushrooms and lily flowers with plenty of white rice!
Steamed Chicken with Mushrooms & Dried Lily Flowers
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup dried wood ear mushrooms
- 1/3 cup dried lily flowers
- 10 medium dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked until reconstituted)
- 1 pound boneless chicken thighs (450g, trimmed of fat and cut into large bite-sized chunks)
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- ¼ teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon rice wine (optional)
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger (grated)
- 1 scallion (chopped, white and green portions divided)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Take the wood ear mushrooms, dried lily flowers, and shiitake mushrooms, and rinse them all separately under running water to make sure any dirt or dust particles are rinsed away. After cleaning, cut off the tough bottom portion of the lily flowers. Cut off the mushroom stems as well, which will speed up the soaking process.
- Transfer the wood ears, lily flowers, and mushrooms to three separate bowls filled with water, and soak for one to two hours. Use a plate to cover and press each of the dried ingredients down to ensure they are fully rehydrated.
- Once reconstituted, roughly chop the wood ears. Squeeze some of the excess water from the mushrooms, and slice each one into quarter-inch thick slices. Be sure to squeeze the lily flowers dry as well.
- Place the chicken, wood ears, mushrooms, lily flowers, water, vegetable oil, sesame oil, rice wine (if using), oyster sauce, sugar, salt, white pepper, grated ginger, and the white portions of the scallions into a bowl. 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 cornstarch until it is uniformly incorporated. At this point, all of the liquid should be absorbed into the chicken, and there should be little or no standing liquid.
- Transfer the mixture to a deep plate or pie dish, and sprinkle half of the green portion of the scallions over the top. Place in a covered 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.
- Carefully remove the cover from the steamer, taking care not to drip any water from the cover onto the dish. Sprinkle the rest of the scallions over the top, and serve with rice!
nutrition facts
This was beautifully succulent. The flavors grew on me as I kept eating it. I can totally see why this would be a beloved childhood recipe. It tastes healthy and sustaining.
Hi Trish, happy to hear you really appreciated this steamed chicken recipe – definitely a gem.
Question– you note to be careful not to let any drips from the steamer cover drip into dish. Should this be done is a covered dish in a steamer or is the amount of water that naturally accumulates from a steamer ok? Is this an instance where a bamboo steamer (with its vents) is more appropriate than a steam rack you put in a pot with a lid? Thanks!
Hi Stephen, the natural water is ok, but a domed lid helps because water should drip down the lid to the sides and not into the bowl. One other thing to remember is to keep the heat on medium so not too much steam is generated, which could cause excess water in the dish.
Absolutely delicious and easy to cook. Thank you
Awesome! It’s also one of our absolute favorites.
Made this tonight! The whole family, including twin babies, devoured it. We have been eating a lot of seriously spicy Szechuan dishes recently so this was a nice change. Definitely autumn comfort food. Love your family’s page!
Hi Eliza, so happy to hear the whole family enjoyed it! I grew up on this too :)
So, I just made this in my Instant Pot. Rice on the bottom, this dish above in a stainless steel bowl. 3 minutes high pressure, 10 minutes natural release.
There was not much juice and I had to add some water to create the gravy. Next time I make this, I will add some extra water.
regardless, my husband loved it and is asking me to make this again. Even though I used my own cooking technique it turned out just delicious. Thank you for sharing all these wonderful recipes. I’ve never cooked Chinese food much until I found your website.
Hi Kathrin, thanks so much for sharing your cooking method with the instant pot!
I’ve made this a couple of times and it’s super tasty. Can I make this in my instant pot? I am thinking about cooking the rice on the bottom and the using a separate dish for the chicken, mushrooms etc on top. Rice only needs to cook on high pressure for 3 minutes with 10 minutes natural release. Sounds to me like this would work. Have you ever cooked this dish like that?
Cooked this dish today (8/29/2020)
Was absolutely awesome, simple recipe, steamed using my bamboo steamer, was done in the 10 minutes as the recipe stated.
So tasty and healthy, everything was so tender, with a wonderful texture.
Perfect Saturday afternoon meal.
Keep the recipes coming. :-)
Hi Leon, so happy to hear you executed the recipe perfectly and enjoyed this classic dish I remember as a child. Nice job and we’ll do our best to publish more!
Hi there! Can this recipe be done with pork? I imagine it’d be the same seasonings and technique, but would love to know if anyone tried it this way.
So good. I remember this dish as a child too. True comfort food that should get passed on to the next generation. Thank you!
I loved this dish, simple and healthy. Any more steamed dishes like this to share with us would be greatly welcomed! There are lots of stir fries out there, which I love, but not so many steamed dishes like this.
Hi DH, glad you enjoyed it – we’ll look at our to-do list for more steamed recipes to publish in the fall. Try our steamed pork patty with preserved vegetables and steamed pork patty with salted fish. We also have a nice whole steamed duo jiao tilapia and the classic whole steamed fish. For vegetarians and vegans, try Kaitlin’s Spicy Hunan Steamed Tofu & Mushrooms or Steamed Seitan with Mushrooms & Dried Lily Flowers
We actually have a whole category of steamed dishes, which you can browse here: https://thewoksoflife.com/recipe-list/?category=steamed-dishes
Happy cooking!