Cantonese chicken with mushrooms

This Cantonese chicken with mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and a lot of other tasty ingredients was a dish my father learned in Hong Kong in the 1960s . It was one of the first Chinese recipes he taught me. Thus, it occupies a special place in my heart and memory. An easy, no-fuss wok meal, it's simple to knock up in practically no time at all.

If you see me walking down the street, wok on by...

This Cantonese chicken with mushrooms, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots feels a bit like getting back to why I set this site up in the first place; sharing the recipes my father learned on his travels and later shared with me. This is one from his handwritten journals, from Hong Kong in 1965.

I don't know much about this dish—the entry is devoid of the florid detail he often put in his journals. What I do know, is that it was taught to him by the wife of an old seafaring buddy who had moved to Hong Kong. They invited him to dinner at their flat and, worried that he might be another fussy Westerner, she opted for a very straightforward dish.

After meeting my father, she rapidly figured that he wasn't unadventurous when it came to food and subsequently taught him a number of recipes, some of which show up in his journals and some of which were simply communicated verbally to me as he drew me into the joys of late-night cooking, much to my mother's chagrin.

Interestingly, this dish—known as Moo Goo Gai Pan in many places in the West—appeared in practically every Chinese neighborhood restaurant I visited in the USA, but rarely appears on the menus of equivalent eateries in the UK. I've never been sure why. Perhaps the British just like their Cantonese dishes a little more Bacchanalian while health-conscious Americans might be more attracted to this relatively lo-cal, low-fat dish. Who knows?

Certainly, this is a go-to Chinese dish for fussy eaters who don't like their spices too complex. And. experience has taught me that kids love it.

The sauce is what gets called "a white sauce" in Cantonese food culture i.e. it contains no soy as a key ingredient. As you can see from my version, I would see it was more "beige" the colour coming from my preference for chestnut mushrooms. If you really want to keep it to the pale aesthetic, use those very white closed cup mushrooms.

Can a chicken swim?

Consumers chatter in the West about the practice of producers pumping water into cuts of meat and poultry (to make them look bigger and and become heavier) and how they shrink when you cook them. There's a certain irony here: quite a lot of Cantonese dishes use a technique of getting poultry to absorb water before chucking it in a very hot wok.

Water massaged in, then combined with cornflour and other ingredients is referred to as "silkening" (or "velveting"). It has two functions. Firstly, it means that the chicken (or duck) will not lose its succulent flavour in a hot wok. Secondly, it gives a glossiness to the cooked dish that appeals to the Cantonese food aesthetic. It's the stir fry hack you'll never be taught by Western supermarkets or TV chefs because you can't freeze it or pre-pack it.

Paint it white

Some years ago I attended a cooking demonstration by a vaunted British-Chinese chef well-known for his beloved television programmes. During the Q&A, I had a question. I had noticed that many Cantonese dishes call for white pepper versus black. Was there a reason for this?

His answer was so immediate and confident that I suspect others had asked before: "Aesthetics." He explained that in parts of China specks of ground pepper were thought unattractive, looking like something burned in the wok. But, as far as he knew, there was never any flavour argument for the preference. There you have it kids: use black pepper if that's all you have in the house and aren't entertaining a Chinese trade delegation...

However, I do advise keep to simple boiled or steamed white rice. When you taste it, you'll know why. There is a tendency in the West to opt for the luxuriant pleasures of fried rice, and certainly that works well with a lot of dishes with a snazzier sauce. This dish borders on home comfort simplicity you might find in a retirement home and, therefore, simple white rice is the perfect carb accompaniment.

This version is for 3 to 4 diners, depending on your side nibbles. But, it's easily scaled for other groups.

3 top tips to get this recipe right:

• Once it gets going, this dish cooks really quickly. So, it's essential you do all your prep beforehand and have everything readily at hand before firing up the wok. A high heat, as with a lot of wok dishes, is really important . So, when I say "hot chicken stock", I really mean it. You really don't want the temperature in the wok to drop by pouring in tepid chicken stock. I advise sticking it in the microwave shortly before adding to the wok.

• Do NOT bypass the (simple and relatively quick) "silkening" (" velveting") stage with the chicken. Otherwise you'll either end up with undercooked chicken or something rather tough. The sad truth is that Western supermarkets elide this important part of Cantonese wok dishes involving poultry because they want consumers to see them as painless, easy dishes. I think they're painless, but it is the difference between a fantastic stir fry and the questionable. You decide.

• I find the simplicity of this dish fantastic, but bordering on denying the kinds of sensorial pleasure I enjoy from food a lot of the time. Thus, I usually serve it with little side dishes that offer an understated piquant counterpoint—prawn wontons or toasts or small spring rolls with a seductive dipping sauce, that kind of thing. It's entirely optional. It certainly doesn't demand it, but I suggest giving it a go.

Shopping list

for the Cantonese chicken with mushrooms and water chestnuts

• 1Approx. 400g chicken breasts, sliced into bit size piece "across the grain"

• Approx. 200g closed cup mushrooms; sliced

• Approx. 100g Enoki mushrooms (or straw mushrooms)

• 1 tin (225g) sliced water chestnuts

• 1 tin (225g) bamboo shoots

• 2 small bok choy; washed and cut into fairly large pieces

• Approx. 60ml water (for the "silkening" marinade)

• 4tbspns sunflower oil (or rapeseed oil)

• 2tpns cornflour (for the marinade)

• A thumb’s length of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

• 2 cloves of fresh garlic; peeled and thinly sliced

• 4 spring onions; sliced; white parts divided from the green

• 1tbsn Shaoxing wine

• 250ml hot chicken stock

• ¼ tspn caster sugar (or white sugar)

• 1tspn oyster sauce

• ½ tspn toasted sesame oil

• 1½tbspns cornflour mixed with 2tbspns water, to thicken the sauce

for the sides

• Steamed or boiled white rice

• Prawn toast, prawn wonton or small spring rolls and dipping sauce

Cooking Method

1. Place the chicken pieces in a mixing bowl and add 60ml water. Using clean fingers, massage the chicken so that it absorbs the liquid. Once largely absorbed, add the rest of the marinade ingredients: 1tspn sunflower oil, 2tspns cornflour, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of ground white pepper. Mix well and set aside covered, at room temperature for at least 20mins before cooking, but no longer than 40mins

2. Heat the wok on a high heat and, when hot, add 2tbspns of sunflower oil, spreading around the wok into a thin coating. Add the chicken and sear for 40 to 60secs, turning at least once with tongs so that it is seared on both sides. You want it to be 60 to 70% cooked. Remove from the heat and return the chicken to the mixing bowl

3. Return the wok to the heat, adding another tablespoon of sunflower oil. Add the ginger, stirring. As soon as the aroma releases (seconds rather than minutes), add the white parts of the spring onions and the garlic. Stir fry for another 30secs or so

4. Add the bamboo shoots and stir in, frying for about 30secs, then add the water chestnuts and mushrooms, stirring vigorously. Stir fry for about a minute, ensuring all the ingredients as nicely coated

5. Add the bok choy, stirring in. Almost immediately, add the Shaoxing wine. Fry for another 40 to 60secs

6. Add the pre-seared chicken and about half of the hot chicken stock, stirring in thoroughly. The basic rule of thumb is balancing how quickly it cooks off with how "wet" you want the final sauce. Add the rest as needed. NB: I usually use most of the chicken stock because I like this dish when its chicken flavour has truly infused with the bamboo shoots and bok choy

7. Bring the liquid to the boil. Add a pinch of white pepper, the caster sugar, sesame oil and oyster sauce. Stir in so that the sauce starts to become cohesive, then reduce

8. Add the cornflour and water mix and stir almost continuously. This mixture in Cantonese cooking has the dual function of reducing sauces but also making dishes "silken"; gives a gloss to them. When this happens, remove from the heat and cover to keep warm

9. Transfer to a serving dish using a sieve spoon. This is important: the thickness of the sauce is never entirely consistent. Using a sieve spoon, means you can gauge how much of the sauce you wish to spoon over later. Garnish the green spring onion slices

10. Immediately take to table and serve the rice and any nice nibbles you favour

Alternatives

This dish is very adaptable. The only things that make it not vegan are the chicken and chicken stock. I have cooked great versions of it with tofu and Quorn (bypass the "silkening" and just add to the wok) but, I have equally cooked great vegan versions by simply increasing the quantities of bak choy, mushrooms, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots (or adding an additional veggie such as thinly sliced carrots or baby sweetcorn). Obviously, use hot vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. But, in the vegan version I usually include a teaspoon of Chinese 5 Spice, in the early stages just to lift it a little.

Pescatarian versions of this dish are fantastic. Proceed as normal (substituting vegetable stock not fish stock), then add king prawns, squid rings, cubes of skinless white fish or sliced fish balls, or a combination thereof, at the appropriate point. Work it out because each of these has a slightly different cooking time, though all of them will fall within the timescale after the stock is added to the wok.

Carnivores, it's basically chicken, or duck at a push. If you really are more insistent on "meaty", there are recipes that include some of these ingredients and pork or thinly sliced beef, but the whole approach to both the sauce and cooking is different. Deal with it.

Pairings

I don't really have any riveting insights into what you might pair with this one. So many times that I cooked it was part of a childcare thing for the wee kiddies so friends could go out at the weekend that I mostly associate it with sparkling water with a dash of lemon.

My father loved it with beer and I would usually drink that with him when we made together, ironically seldom with Hong Kong beers and more likely other Asian beers such as Tsingtao or Tiger Beer.

I've never really noted any particular wine pairings with it. It is certainly far too mild for my go-to "curry wine" usual suspects. So, I have usually paired it with global pinot grigios, French Colombards, or Swiss pinot gris. All worked, but none would get an effusive Insta post from me. I leave it to Karel to lead the way...