Steamed chicken with Chinese mushroom – black fugues
Black fugues-sometimes known as Chinese mushroom is a super beneficial and rare black food (beneficial to kidney) in nature. Sometimes it is called as Jew ear or Jew’s ear. For thousands of years in history, Chinese people consider wood ear mushrooms as a type of medicinal food since the rich nutrients including iron, protein, polysaccharide, vitamins as well as other minerals. There is also an interesting saying that wood ear mushrooms are the meat in vegetables. Wood ear mushrooms are sold as dried wood ear mushrooms in market. So the firstly step of processing this type of dried goods is soak in cold water.
Sometimes it might be slightly difficult to get good black fugues. Dried goods should be free of musty taste and usually thicker.
There is a famous black fugues salad in China named as Marinade Black Ear.
No one can refuse steamed chicken. They usually are full of flavor and provide an extremely tender taste. More importantly, steaming is one of the healthiest cooking methods. If you can find high quality chicken meat, try with steamed chicken with beneficial side ingredients like black fugues, mushrooms, green onions and ginger.
There is another way for steaming chicken—Easy Chinese steamed chicken with ginger and scallion. But I match that with a tested dipping sauce. If you love steamed chicken recipes, try both of them and choose your favorite version.
Make the preparation–marinate the chicken and soak the wood ear mushroom
Mix together and start steaming. High fire for around 30 minutes.
Garnish some chopped green onion and serve with steamed rice and chili sauce you like. I am using fresh homemade Hunan Chili Sauce.
- Half of a whole chicken
- 1 handful dried wood ear mushroom
- 3 fresh shitake mushrooms , sliced
- Chili sauce for serving , I am using homemade Hunan style chopped chili
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce , if you want to dark the color
- 2 green onions , white parts (keep the green ones for garnish)
- 10 ginger sheds
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
-
Cut chicken into chunks and then soak in clean water for around 30 minutes. Change the water twice during the process. Transfer out and drain.
-
In a large bowl, mix the chicken chunks with all the marinating ingredients. Set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
-
Pre-soak the wood ear mushroom with clean water and slice the shitake mushrooms.
-
Mix all the content together. Transfer to steamer and steam over high fire about 30 minutes or until you can easy insert a chop sticker in the chicken meat. You can steam this dish with steamed rice if the chunks are not too large. But you need to choose a longer cooking program to guarantee the steaming time.
-
Transfer out and garnish some chopped green onions. Serve with any chili sauce you prefer and steamed rice.
If you have Chinese sausage, add some slices can improve the flavor.
I love fungus! and my mother is also a big fan of your blog ^^
Hi Acyhoz,
Thanks for leaving those warm works. I am so honored to have your guys here.
I love Chinese mushrooms.. especially when they are drenched in a salty oyster sauce marinade. This is definitely a dish that takes me back to my Chinese roots.. and is one I need to make!
I agree Thalia, Chinese mushroom is really great with savory marinade. I have not tried with oyster sauce. But it sounds like a great idea. Will check it out later.
How do you stop the chicken from drying out with 30 mins of steaming? I steamed for 20 mins and the chicken was very very rubbery. Especially the white meat. Any advice? In your soy sauce chix you only cooked for 10 mins. Thanks for any advice
Hi Brian,
What steamer do you use? And how it is set up? Steaming usually needs more time than poaching.