Easy and aromatic garlicky steamed chicken with black bean sauce. This is super easy and friendly to make in summer. So need to stand in front of hot fire and you get well flavored and tender chicken dish made within 15 minutes.
Chicken is easy to prepare and cook. There are a large group of chicken recipes on the blog. Chicken can be fried and toasted with salt and pepper, or fry with lots of aromatics. Older hen can be used in soups with mushrooms or bamboo shoots. Although quite common and simple, chicken meat can be easily overcooked especially in stir-frying recipes. Steaming is the friendliest to beginners since the temperature of the vapour is quite stable. I introduced very simple steamed chicken with scallion and ginger to keep the original taste of the chicken, matched with a dipping sauce. This one the chicken is coated with a heavier seasonings and sauce. With the protection of the starch, the chicken cubes can be super tender but full of flavor.
Cook’s Note
- Marinating chicken is the key step for a good flavor result.
- Pour hot oil over garlic and fermented black bean can motivate the aroma.
- Adding your favorite vegetable at the bottom have two purposes. The first one is to support the chicken and make sure they are evenly cooked. And the second is to absorb the juicy of the chicken.
Instructions
Cut chicken meat into small pieces and then marinating with all the marinating ingredients namely light soy sauce, sugar, white pepper, oyster sauce, Chinese cooking oil, spring onion and ginger slices. Mix well and set aside for 30 minutes. Then discard the spring onion sections and ginger slices. Add cornstarch in and mix well.
Finely chop garlic and then roughly cut fermented black beans. Place the mushrooms at the bottom, and then top with chicken. Spread the garlic and fermented black beans evenly over the chicken. Heat around 2 tablespoons of cooking oil until smoky and pour evenly over the garlic. Mix well.
Place mushroom and wood ear in bottom and then spread the chicken meat. Steam with high fire for 15 minutes.
Transfer out, sprinkle some extra light soy sauce and sesame oil to create some naughty flavors. Serve with steamed rice.
Other Chicken Recipes
- Kung pao chicken
- Taiwanese salt and pepper chicken
- Chinese steamed chicken
- Scallion oil Crispy chicken
- Salt and pepper chicken wings
- Chinese soy sauce chicken
- Chinese braised chicken
- Chongqing Mala Chicken
- Herbal chicken soup
- Chinese roasted chicken
- Szechuan fresh pepper chicken (尖椒鸡)
Steamed Chicken with Black Bean Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 chicken drumsticks , remove the bones and cut into small pieces
Marinating Ingredients
- 1 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp. oyster sauce , optional
- 1/4 tsp. sugar
- 1/4 tsp. white pepper powder
- 2 spring onions
- 5 slices of ginger
Others
- 1 tbsp. cornstarch
- 4 garlic cloves , finely chopped
- 1 tbsp. fermented black beans
- 2 tbsp. vegetable cooking oil , heat until smoky
- wood ear mushrooms as needed
- other mushroom
Instructions
- Cut chicken meat into small pieces and then marinating with all the marinating ingredients namely light soy sauce, sugar, white pepper, oyster sauce, Chinese cooking oil, spring onion and ginger slices. Mix well and set aside for 30 minutes.
- Then discard the spring onion sections and ginger slices. Add cornstarch in and mix well.
- Finely chop garlic and then roughly cut fermented black beans. Place the mushrooms at the bottom, and then top with chicken. Spread the garlic and fermented black beans evenly over the chicken. Heat around 2 tablespoons of cooking oil until smoky and pour evenly over the garlic. Mix well.
- Steam with high fire for 15 minutes.
- Transfer out, sprinkle some extra light soy sauce and sesame oil to create some naughty flavors. Serve with steamed rice.
sounds very good, but i am at a loss. what are “naughty” flavors? 😀
Oh come on, don’t behave like you’re a boy in middle school. Go try cooking the dish instead.
Fantastic recipe and results. I especially love the part where I had to pour hot oil over the meat. This very simple yet essential step sealed the juice in the meat and made the meat very smooth and tender. Very delicious. I did tweaked the recipe a little by adding chilies to the garlic and chopping them together. All in all, the meal was very satisfying. Thank you Elaine.
Thanks!!! Yes, adding some chilis is a brilliant idea. My daughter don’t eat any spicy food and she is at home because of the outbreak. So I skip chilis in most of the daily based cooking.
looks good. will definitely try this recipe.. thanks
Happy cooking, Christine!
This looks amazing! What do you steam in?
My daily wok with a stander.
Hi Elaine, in the grey box it should probably read “Chinese cooking wine” instead of “Chinese cooking oil” in step one of the instructions.
Hi Elaine,
finally got time to try this out. My kitchen turned a bit sauna like, but it was totally worth it. This dish is so delicious! It always amazes me how different things taste when steamed…
Haha, Recently I get whether climbs over 35 degree C and I even don’t want to cook this one. But I remember the delicious of the dish.
I can’t wait to make this!! I love your website I use it ALL the time.
Joe, Mpls., MN
Thank you!
I used to make a version of this with bone in pieces of chicken. I like it sliced as in this recipe much better! I also added about 1/4 tsp is sesame oil to marinade—instead of waiting til the end. The mushrooms add a great texture. Will definitely make again. Our Asian grocer near us recently stopped selling salt fermented black beans—- boo! I ended up using black bean garlic paste instead. Still very good.
Thanks Jessica for your lovely feedback!! I used to make chicken with bones too but figure out that it is not convenient for eating, so I removed the bones in previous!!
Hi How much of the black bean garlic paste do you use instead of the dried beans as this is what I have too?
Thanks ?
Fabulous! Amazing how something so simple can taste so divine. Towards the end I threw in some broccoli to steam along. I loved this dish. I think the only thing I might change is to double the sauce to also drizzle over the broccoli. That’s how good it was!!! 🙂
By the way…it is totally obvious, but maybe for novices you might want to add that you put a bowl in the steamer and whether you use fresh/dry mushrooms or soak them. Of course anyone who has a little knowledge of Chinese cuisine would know but I remember what it was like for me (living in Europe) to cook my first Asian recipes 🙂
Afra,
I use fresh mushrooms. The steaming time is not too long and hard to cook the dried mushrooms.
Not totally obvious- thank you for the info.
Great recipe — definitely one of my favorites now!
Thank you, Ann!