Braised Chicken with King Oyster Mushroom

This is my first post and I am so excited! My first recipe to share with you is Braised Chicken with king oyster mushroom. King oyster mushroom is highly nutritious. It is high in dietary fibre, low in calories and has a high antioxidant content. It also helps to lower cholesterol. I love this mushroom for its high nutritional value and its crunchy bite.

This recipe is similiar to the chinese braising method. The braised chicken together with the king oyster mushroom makes this dish so flavourful that you can simply eat it with 2 bowls of plain rice. This is also a very easy dish to prepare.

Ingredients - Serves 2

Food ingredients:

- 10 whole garlic cloves, peeled

- 10-12 thinly slices of ginger

- 2 stalks King oyster mushrooms, cut into big chunks

- 1 chilli padi / bird's eye chilli, sliced thinly (omit if you wish)

- 2-3 stalks spring onions, cut to lengths

- 3 chicken thighs, wash clean and set aside

  (Do not debone or cut first. Read below for cooking directions)

Seasoning:

- 1/2 tbsp sesame oil

- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce

- 1 tbsp light soy sauce

- 1 tbsp mirin or 1 tbsp sugar if you do not have mirin

- 2 tbsp chinese cooking wine

- a pinch of salt

Cooking Directions

1) Heat up the pan on low-medium heat. Put the whole chicken thighs with the skin down on the heated pan. Remove the chicken when the oil is released from the skin. We do not want the chicken to be cooked thoroughly.

2) Debone and skin the chicken after removing from heat. Cut the chicken thigh into pieces of around 5-6 cm.

3) Using the same pan with the chicken oil, put in the sesame oil and stir fry the ginger slices till fragant. Put in the whole garlic cloves and chilli padi. 

4) Add in the chicken pieces and 1 tbsp of cooking wine, and stir fry.

6) When most of the chicken pieces are browned, add in the king oyster mushroom. Then, add in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and mirin. Reduce to low heat, cover the pot and let it simmer for around 15 minutes.

8) During the simmering process, the water will be released from the king oyster mushroom.

9) After 15 minutes, check on the pot. If you like the gravy to thicken, you can braise for another 10 minutes. The longer you braise, the more flavourful the chicken will be. However if you like your chicken to have more gravy, 15 minutes should be enough.

10) Add in spring onions and the last tbsp of cooking wine before heating off.

Additional notes: 

1) Frying the chicken skin will release the oil from the skin. It will add aroma to the dish.

2) Note that we do not want the chicken to be cooked thoroughly. Hence, remove at once when the skin has browned and when you can see some oil in the pan. The chicken pieces are still raw inside after cutting.

3) Sesame oil burns easily. It is better to mix some oil with the sesame oil when cooking. In this case, we are using natural chicken oil.

4) Mushrooms release a lot of water during cooking. Hence, you do not need to add in the water during the braising.