Braised Chicken with Mushroom and Chestnut

Dried shitake mushrooms  are versatile, affordable and widely used in Asian cuisine.  Their meaty texture and smoky flavour is great paired with other varieties and in this case I've used them in a soy-based dish, braised with chicken and chestnuts.  This dish goes very well with plain white rice.

Recipe for Braised Chicken with Mushroom and Chestnut

Ingredients

• 500 gm free-range chicken, skin removed, cut into bite size
• 6 dried Shitake mushrooms, soaked, stemmed and cut
• 60 gm dried Chestnuts, soaked for about 5 hours or more till puffed up and remove the skin from the crevices of the nut.  (Best to do this a day before)
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1  Tbsp dark soya sauce
• 1  Tbsp light soya sauce
• 3 cups water
• Seasalt and  some Rock Sugar to taste
• 1.1/2  tsp cornflour + 3 tsp water to thicken
• Shaoxing cooking wine 

Method

1. Marinate the chicken with some seasalt, let rest.
2. In a wok, saute the crushed garlic with some oil till fragrant, add in the chestnuts, stir-fry followed by the mushrooms.  Add in the sauces, some rock sugar, water and bring to the boil.  Then lower heat, cover and simmer.
3. Once the chestnuts are slightly soft, add in the marinated chicken pieces and let cook till meat as well as the chestnuts are tender.  (You may need to add more water if necessary).
4. Thicken the sauce with the cornflour mixture, fine tune to desired taste.
5. Drizzle on some Shaoxing wine, turn off heat.
6. Ladle onto serving plate and serve with hot rice.

 

This post is linked to the event,  Little Thumbs Up organised by  Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Joyce of  Kitchen Flavours   for this theme.