Super easy Chinese steamed chicken with ginger and green onion which only requires 10 minutes of preparation. Matched with a fabulous oyster sauce-based sauce.
Steaming might be the easiest way of cooking chicken. Steaming is a really popular cooking method in every Chinese kitchen. Steamed dishes are simple, quick, and always tender in texture. Simply marinate the chicken chunks for minutes to obtain a basic flavor, then transfer them to a steamer and steam. That’s so simple. I have made this steamed chicken recipe several times this summer.
Why steaming
People in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces love to serve this chicken directly since the steamed chicken keeps the natural taste of a high-quality chicken. There are lots of umami components in chicken meat. Steaming can preserve the flavor to the maximum.
Ingredients needed
- Organic younger chicken: younger chicken is commonly used in steamed dishes, stir-fried or poached chicken.
- green onion: also known as spring onion. It helps to enhance the flavor and move the raw taste of the chicken. Green onions can be replaced by scallions.
- ginger: ginger is an important aromatic for food that use fewer seasonings. It helps to remove the raw taste.
- Shaoxing wine: also known as Chinese cooking wine. It is widely used in meat dishes. You can substitute with dry sherry if desired.
- salt to taste: since we will serve with a dipping sauce, spare the salt amount to make the chicken meat refreshing.
- light soy sauce: light soy sauce gives a basic Umami flavor to the chicken.
The oyster-based sauce
I developed this oyster-based dipping sauce for this super simple steamed chicken. Oyster sauce is a savory, thick paste sauce popular in southern China. It goes super well with blanched vegetables and proteins. The reason why I choose an oyster sauce-based sauce is because of the thick paste texture, making it working not as a regular dipping sauce but as a lovely thick coating. This will form a very strong comparison with the juicy and tender steamed chicken.
Instructions
Spread the marinating sauce evenly on the cleaned chicken—every place. Put ginger and green onion shreds on top and marinate at least for 30 minutes. If you are not in a hurry, I would suggest preparing the chicken in the morning and making this as lunch or dinner.
Steaming Tips
- If you get a rice cooker, you can choose to steam this along with the steamed rice. Simply get a rice cooker steamer. It’s a lovely idea to save energy and time.
- Or you can also choose to steam this in a regular steamer for around 20 minutes.
Chinese Steamed Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- Half of a whole chicken , around 1 and 1/2 pound
- 1 tbsp. ginger shreds
- 1 tbsp. green onion shreds , white part
Marinating sauce
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1 tsp. Chinese cooking wine
- 1/2 tsp. salt
Dip sauce
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 4 tbsp. water
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbsp. chopped green onions
- 1 tbsp. sesame oil
Instructions
- Clean the chicken and then spread the marinating sauce evenly on both sides.
- Lay ginger shreds and green onion shreds over to marinate at least 30 minutes. Then place in your steamer. I am using the steamer of my electric rice cooker. If you are using a steamer with wok or pot, steam with high fire around 20 minutes until soft (or you can easily insert a chop sticker in). Transfer out and cut into chunks of your favorite size. Decorate with green onions.
Dipping sauce
- In a sauce pan, heat up 1 tablespoon sesame oil and stir fry chopped garlic and green onion until aroma. And then add oyster sauce, light soy sauce and water. Mix well and bring all the content to a boiling. Transfer to dipping bowl and cool down a little bit.
- Serve steamed chicken with dipping sauce.
Steamed chicken is so great, one of my favourites, but you will need a very good chicken because all the bad stuff comes out instead of being covered up by frying or such.
Dear Ms Elaine
Need your advice on the steaming. I usually steam using a small metal bowl and put on a wok and cover it up. After 30 minutes I tend to get the metal bowl is filled with steamed water and the chicken is submerged in it. I may lose all the flavor of marination , diluted in the bowl and I have to discard the juice and the fluid away. Is there any method that I could do to prevent it? Similar to steaming fish with ginger and scallion, the steamed water fills my fish bowl. Please advice. Thanks Regards Siva
Hi Siva,
I believe the problem is your wok and the lid. For example I am using rice cooker steamer or metal steamer, the lids for those equipments can drainage the vapour to the edges and keep the dish almost dry. Besides, you still need to wait for several minutes before opening the lid, allowing the vapour dropping down.
wow! looks fabulous! just discovered your website. can’t wait to try your recipes!
Nous l’avons fait hier et c’est délicieux!
Chantall
Merci 🙂
Approximately how ,any people can this recipe serve
It can serve 2 people.
Hi Elaine, can I substitute the cooking wine with vinegar?
No,
If you have no access to cooking wine, skip it.
Hi Elaine!
This has become a recipe our family enjoys very regularly. We love it! Thank you for your recipes which are so delicious … your photos are amazing, which makes them a delight to cook! With the dipping sauce, I add a bit of lime juice …. we find it just adds another level of flavour.
Use lime juice is a smart idea and turn the dish slightly different. I will try it next time. Thanks for letting me know. Happy cooking!
This is looking beautiful and very delicious,
I love steamed chicken very much. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
?
Hi there.
Am a muslim. Instead of chinese wine, what can i use to replace it?
I loves this chinese style steamed chicken and so thanks to you for this recipe.
You can use other wine allowed. Or simply skip it. The chicken tastes great with enough scallion and ginger.