Black Mushroom Chicken Stew, 冬菇鸡

One of my favorite soups

This is one of those soups that is surprisingly simple to make, yet exceptionally rich in flavor. It goes well with anything, from rice to noodles. It’s the perfect comfort food when you’re not feeling well and just want to feel like home.

"This is the one recipe I wanted to do this year" - Ray

Ingredients 

• 1 whole cornish hen (or Chinese silk chicken)

• 2 oz dried black mushrooms, 冬菇

• 3 scallion heads (the white part, not the green part)

• 3 slices of ginger

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tbsp sugar

• 1/2 cup soy sauce

• 1/3 cup Shao Xing Rice Wine, 绍兴酒花雕牌

Cooking Tools

• Wok with lid

• Slow cooker [Optional]

Steps

Silky black chicken is best (see photo), but for the rest of this recipe, we'll just use a standard cornish hen.

First, wash the chicken thoroughly, including the insides.

Cut off and discard the anus of the chicken. You don't want to be eating that.

To properly cut the chicken, first cut off the wings and drumsticks by holding the leg up and slicing through the joint.

Then, split the chicken into a top half and bottom half.

Then cut the halves down the middle. Now you have quarters.

Cut everything, including the wings and drumsticks, into equal-sized square chunks.

 Cut the onion heads into diagonal slices

Cut the ginger into small strips.

Heat up a wok without oil. Once the wok is hot, put in room temperature oil and stir fry the ginger and onions for 30 seconds. You'll be able to smell the ginger.

Add the mushrooms and stir fry for a few minutes.

Remove the ginger, onions and mushrooms from the wok and set aside in a separate bowl.
Stir fry the chicken until it changes to a yellow color.

It doesn't need to be fully cooked, just browned as such:

Add 1/3 cup of rice wine. Let the chicken simmer in the rice wine. You want the chicken to absorb the flavors of the wine, so make sure the chicken is covered in it.

 Cover the wok to make sure the flavors don't escape.

Let it cook for a couple minutes. Then add the 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tbsp sugar, 1/2 cup soy sauce, and the vegetables that we cooked earlier. 

Add a half pot of water, enough for all your soup.

Stir everything together, cover the wok, and bring the stew to a boil.

Once the stew is boiling, it'll have an oily foam film on top. Make sure to skim this off and throw it away.

Throw this away. Ew.

Transfer the stew to a slow cooker and cook for 30 minutes on a high setting. If you have a bigger chicken, then it might take 45 minutes. If you don’t have a slow cooker, continue to cook on the stove on low heat.

You can tell the stew is done when the chicken is tender, juicy, and cooked through. Don't overcook the chicken, otherwise it'll be too tough.

Black Mushroom Chicken Stew, 冬菇鸡