Mushroom Chicken

Today's post is on Mushroom Chicken.

I used two kinds of mushroom for this dish - shiitake mushroom and black Chinese fungus a.k.a. wood ear mushroom a.k.a. black cloud ear mushroom.

As for the meat, it is simply chicken thigh meat. Again, my preferred choice of chicken meat. You can find boneless + skinless thigh meat if you are willing pay a premium. I bought bone-in + skin-on thigh meat and did the painstaking work of getting the meat out of the bone and trimming the skin off.


The name of the game is "Think ahead before starting". I made three mistakes while preparing this dish for not preparing ahead of time.

1) Dried Shiitake mushrooms need to be soaked in water for at least 1 hour
2) Dried Chinese fungus expand after you soaked, start with a large cooking pan/pot
3) This is obvious, if the chicken is frozen, allow enough time to thaw completely.

Ingredients
Chicken thigh - about 4 thighs will serve 3-4 people
Dried Shiitake mushroom - one handful
Dried black Chinese fungus - one handful

Aromatics
Ginger - thumb size
Garlic - 2-3 cloves
Dried red chillies (optional) - 2-3 pieces
Szechuan pepper corn (optional)  - a pinchful

Dried Shiitake mushroom and dried black chinese fungus (note: I used a little more for my dish because I cooked a big pot)

See how much the black fungus expanded?

Shiitake expanded too

Ginger, Garlic, Szechuan peppercorn, dried red chillies

Preparation
1. Cut the chicken into small pieces
2. Remove the stem of the shiitake mushroom and discard. Cut the mushroom into smaller pieces
3. Give the black fungus a crude chopping. It does not need to be precise.
4. Chop the garlic, ginger and dried chilles

Cooking
1. Saute the aromatics until the garlic turns slightly yellow
2. Put the chicken into the pot and stir fry. I learn that there is no need to keep stirring the chicken. Let the chicken cook for a little bit before stirring.
3. Add the shiitake mushroom and black fungus
4. Keep stirring and cooking
5. Add a splash of soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and some salt to taste
6. Add a little water into the pot and turn the heat to medium. Cover the pot and simmer for 10 minutes.
7. Serve