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 pre-heated steamer with boiling water, 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 pre-heated steamer with boiling water, 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!
This looks delicious and is exactly the recipe I was looking for. One question though … in your description, it describes the chicken as being marinated in cornflour to make it slippery. But in the recipe, the cornflour is added just before cooking. Which is correct- or should I add at both stages? Thank you :)
Hi Ange, the directions do say to add the cornstarch just before you steam, but you can also add it when you add the rest of the spices. Either way you’ll still get a nice silky texture. Happy cooking!
What if I have fresh wilted lily flowers? When should I add those?
Hi Barbie, I have never tried using fresh lily flowers so not sure. Let us know how they are if you try them.
This was so good! My mom used to make this but she is not very exact on her measurements so I never learned to make much Chinese food. Thank you!
Hi Amy, we love hearing success stories like yours – happy cooking!
Absolutely delicious!! I used king oyster mushroom stems instead of chicken and they steamed up beautifully. In the future I would probably use chestnuts as well to add a bit of textural variation. A very easy, fast, and filling dish!
Hi Ev, thanks for sharing your ideas on variations with us and our readers.
Love this recipe! Had to take a longer time to steam, using a medium-large porcelein bowl on a rack in a pot of boiling water, which took about 30 min for the chicken to cook
Hi Jenn, Happy to hear you enjoyed this steamed chicken and thanks for sharing your cooking setup!
Delicious!!!!! Definitely going to be my family favourite going forward!!!
Hi Jt, love hearing that you enjoy one of my childhood favs :)
This is it! Lily buds! My mom used to tie a knot in them instead of cutting them. Will definitely try this!! Thank you Bill!!
You’re welcome Kathy! remember to cut off the tough ends of the lily buds ;-)
Delish! I used chicken breast instead of thighs (that being what I had). Next time, I’ll make it with thighs. I found it needed just a little oyster sauce on top while eating.
Hi John, glad you liked the recipe – sounds like you can add more oyster sauce or a little extra salt or soy sauce for next time ;-)
I see the comments about adding Chinese sausage. I’ll try that first.
Hi John, Sarah also published a recipe for chicken and Chinese sausage
Just made this and added some slices of Chinese sausage. The meat was silky as described and just like how my mom used to make. Thank you!
Hi Jennifer, lots of people like adding Chinese sausage as you did. So happy it turned out like your mom’s and you enjoyed it!