Steamed Chicken with Wood Ear Mushrooms

To start this blog off I wanted to write about a common dish I had growing up. Our parents regularly cooked and often put out at least three to four freshly made dishes for dinner. Many of these dishes were more simple during the week when they had to work and any more time consuming dishes were made during the weekend. This takes very little time to make so you can see how it's possible to work hard and still make a delicious meal in no time. After talking to my parents to figure out what my first recipe will be, they were a bit surprised that I would pick something so simple and they hardly considered this to be a recipe. 

My parents are from Guangdong province in China and steamed food is one of the techniques of cooking that is preferred from that region. In the US, the majority of Chinese immigrants have come from this region and are also considered Cantonese. So most of the Americanized Chinese food is a bastardized-mutant variety of Guangdong cuisine.  Instead of mostly fried foods with sticky sweet and sour sauces, a big portion of the cuisine is more subtle in taste and highlights the freshness and variety of ingredients available to that area.

Steaming is a really underrated technique and is typically associated with bland food. To me, that means somebody underseasoned the food and keeps more flavors in vegetables than blanching them. If you don't believe me, try blanching carrots in unsalted water and compare the taste to unsalted steamed carrots. The steamed carrots will retain their sugar and not leak out into the water like the blanched ones would. This dish also makes a delicate chickeny sauce on the bottom of the dish that you can spoon onto your rice as you serve it. However, the downside of steaming is that I think it's the most unforgivable cooking technique to have leftovers with. It's best to make what you think you will immediately eat. Leftover cold pizza or fried chicken to me is way better than many steamed dishes. 

I hope you try to make this. I will try to include as much details so you can improve your technique. Enjoy!

RECIPE: Makes 2 servings
1/2 cup dried wood ear mushrooms
2 chicken thighs
salt to taste
2 pinches sugar (aprox. 1/8 tsp)
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
2-3 slices of ginger, sliced into julienne
drizzle of neutral oil (my parents prefer vegetable oil and I prefer canola oil) or sesame oil
3/4 tbsp corn starch

Soak the dried wood ear mushrooms in a bowl of at least 3 cups of water for 45 minutes to an hour. My mom says not to soak the mushrooms too long or else their texture will be too soggy and soft, eventually to the point where they can start to slightly break apart on their own. You can set this out without covering. After soaking, drain the mushrooms and pick out any tough parts near the stems. You can also break them apart by hand to bite sized pieces. Boil a small pot of water and when it is boiling throw the mushrooms for a few seconds to clean them. Drain the mushrooms, rinse with cold water, gently squeeze out any excess water and set aside.

Place a steaming rack in a wok or large pot, add water to just below the top of the steaming rack. Cover and set it on high heat to boil the water. 

My mom says there's no wrong way to do this and you can customize this to your taste. If you prefer to have breast meat then replace it with the equivalent amount of meat, but you have to slightly reduce cooking time. We frequently had this dish bone-in because it's faster to prepare this way. You can use deboned chicken thighs as well. As for the skin, you can leave this on or off. I usually find most of the skin to separate already and if so, it's better to discard this or add this to scraps for stock making in your freezer. 

Meanwhile, cut the chicken into about 2 inch pieces and set in a bowl. To cut though chicken bone, use a bone cleaver so you don't mess up your knife. Cut right up to the bone and with your secondary hand, strike your palm into the spine of the cleaver a few times to cut through the bone. Add salt, sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, julienned ginger, and a drizzle of your oil of choice to the chicken. Mix to combine. Most seasoning of Guangdong cuisine should be come from salt rather than soy sauce. Soy sauce in this dish should complement the chicken. I see a lot of Americanized Chinese food where the seasoning is treats soy sauce as if it is salt. You should be able to prep all of the chicken, debone it or whatever, while the water is boiling. 

Arrange the mushrooms in a single layer at the bottom of a dish with walls. If you want the mushrooms to appear slightly more appealing, you can drizzle a little bit of oil and toss to evenly coat the mushrooms. Add the corn starch to the seasoned chicken and mix to combine. Arrange the chicken in a single layer on top of the mushrooms. When you add the dish to the wok or steaming pot, drop the heat to medium-high and cover.

My parents say to steam for 10 minutes in general, but this really depends on how strong the water is boiling and how close your food is to the boiling water. I have a fancy Therapen so I know the exact temperature and with my stove, I get good results close to 7 minutes for boneless thighs and 10 minutes for bone-in thighs. Serve and eat immediately! I generally don't prefer chicken breast because it's much more expensive to buy at the store and not as flavorful. If I made this with chicken breast with my stove, I'd estimate that it will take 6.5 minutes to cook.