With this Wandering Dragon Stir Fry recipe you'll get the soft tender chicken just like takeout!
The chicken and shrimp are cooked together with plenty of vegetables, a delicious savory brown Chinese sauce, along with garlic and black pepper. Serve it with fried rice or noodles for a family dinner that is quick and healthy.
What is the Wandering Dragon Stir Fry?
Wandering Dragon Stir Fry is a popular dish in the UK, it is found in the Chef's Specialties section of most takeaway menus!
It is a combination of chicken and shrimp cooked together in a dark soy sauce based sauce, with black pepper and garlic, all mixed with plenty of crunchy bell peppers, melting onions and the fresh pop of green onions.
It is a little bit firey from the black pepper, but it is a Chinese warmth rather than a blow your heat off spice.
I haven't seen this on takeout menus in Australia or the US, which is just sad 😟 but it is worth making at home! It is delicious and so easy to make.
How to get the soft chicken you get in a takeaway
The trick to the soft tender chicken is Baking Soda.
Baking soda is also called, Bicarbonate of Soda, Sodium Bicarbonate, and Bicarb. Just don't get it confused with baking powder. That will ruin your dish!
To tenderize your chicken, first, cut it across the grain into think strips. Then you coat it in the baking soda, let it sit for 15 minutes and then wash it really well. It is SUPER important that the chicken is washed really well as baking soda tastes gross!
To wash the chicken, place the bowl in the sink and fill it with water, use your fingers to rub the chicken well, then drain and repeat twice. Finally, place the chicken into a sieve or colander and rinse it under a cold running tap.
It sounds time-consuming, but I promise it is worth it. Your chicken will be so soft and tender. You can tenderize the chicken in advance and then just keep it covered in the refrigerator for up to 8 hours.
Recipe Tips
We've tested this recipe at least 3 times to ensure it works well for you. Have a look at our tips for getting the best dish you can! (I make this at least once every couple of months so this one has been tested at least 30 times!)
- Tenderize the chicken as talked about above
- Have the sauce ingredients mixed together before you start cooking.
- Use a large heavy-based skillet/fry pan to ensure that your stir fry cooks quickly, a skillet is often better than a wok in the home kitchen - you can read more about that here in "Do you need a wok"
- Mix up the veg to make sure your family will eat it. (I use only red and yellow bell peppers because my children avoid the green ones.) You could add mushrooms, carrot disks, snow peas, broccoli anything that your family loves!
- Use the authentic ingredients (spoiler you can buy them all in the grocery store!)
Want to save this recipe?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
The Authentic Ingredients in Wandering Dragon Stir Fry
Oyster Sauce - available in grocery stores (Lee Kum Kee Panda brand is my favorite)
Chinese Cooking Wine/Chinese Rice Wine - not to mistaken for rice wine vinegar!!! You can sub in dry sherry if you like.
Enjoy x
For more delicious takeout inspired meals checkout:
If you try this Wandering Dragon Stir Fry, please leave a 🌟star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I really appreciate it, and it helps others to know that the recipe is trustworthy.
Any questions about the recipe? Use the comments section below.
Get the Recipe
Takeaway Style Wandering Dragon Stir Fry Recipe
Ingredients
To tenderize the chicken
- 1 chicken breast
- 1 tablespoon baking soda - see note 1
For the sauce:
- 2 tablespoon Chinese rice wine - see note 2
- 1 ½ tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 3 garlic cloves - crushed
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup chicken broth - cold
- 11/2 tablespoon cornflour
For the Stir Fry
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 1 onion - peeled and chopped
- 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 1 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
- 12 raw large shrimp/prawns - shelled and de-veined
Instructions
Start with tenderizing the chicken
- Cut the chicken into thin strips across the grain.
- Place in a bowl and sprinkle with the baking soda.
- Let the chicken marinade for 15 minutes then wash off the baking soda and rinse the chicken several times. (See note 3)
- Pat dry with kitchen paper and set to one side.
Make the sauce.
- Combine the ingredients for the sauce together in a measuring cup or jug.
- Set to one side.
To make the wandering dragon stir fry
- Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat, once the oil starts to shimmer add the chicken and cook for 2 minutes until almost cooked through. Remove from the pan.
- Add the remaining oil to the pan
- Add the onion fry for 1 minute.
- Add the bell peppers to the pan and cook for a further 2 minutes.
- Add the shrimp and then return the chicken to the pan.
- Cook for 2 minutes stirring well.
- Give the sauce another stir and then add it to the skillet and bring to a simmer.
- The sauce will start to thicken.
- Cook for 1-2 minutes until everything is cooked through and the sauce just coats the meat and veg.
- Remove from the heat and serve immediately.
Notes
- Baking Soda is also called Bicarb, Bicarbonate of Soda and Sodium Bicarbonate.
- Chinese Cooking Wine/Chinese Rice Wine - not to mistaken for rice wine vinegar!!! You can sub in dry sherry if you like.
- Make sure you wash the chicken really well to remove any traces of baking soda. It is amazing at tenderizing meat, but has a terrible taste so you want to remove it.
Nutrition
Nutrition is per serving
DavidF says
[Before I comment below, I want you to know that we love your recipes in the US. I am trying to learn how to cook Chinese, and we are studying how to do so -- with your many Chinese dishes. Thank you for showing us how to do them.]
Could this dish be called, "Dragon Lion Fight" in the US? I think that's what some places call it, because it's something that I love.
At a great Chinese place ("Twin Lion Chinese Restaurant") in Austin, Texas, it is called "Dragon and Lion Fight", which includes broccoli, carrot, mushroom, snow pea, and bamboo with chicken (i.e., "Lion") and shrimp (i.e., "Dragon").
Other places, call it "Dragon and Phoenix" that is a duo-dish offering of hot and spicy elements. It is half General Tso's chicken and the other half is vegetables and shrimp in a hot and spicy sauce with a little sweetening.
Claire | Sprinkles and Sprouts says
Hi David.
I am so happy you enjoy the recipes.
This sounds very like it could be the same dish. It makes sense it might go under different names in different countries.
I will have to look into Dragon and Phoenix 🙂
Thank you for taking the time to come back and comment.
Cx
DavidF says
Claire ... I wonder if this is something that is called, "Dragon Lion Fight", in the US. Because this is essentially chicken and shrimp with brown sauce. So, maybe, that's another popular recipe that I was looking for, so maybe you have the "Secret Recipe" where we can make it at home. And, that's a goal of ours to start creating / copying all recipes that we eat out and do them at home. Safer, cheaper, and more reproducible.
And, for all of us in the US, don't know how it is over in Australia; but, everything has become so expensive that millions of people in America are not going to eat out much anymore and are just cooking at home, because we can't afford it. So, recipe sites like yours should become ever more popular because of that.
Claire | Sprinkles and Sprouts says
It could well be, I find lots of dishes have different names.
I will have to see if anywhere near me does a Dragon Lion Fight and order it to compare 🙂
And I definitely agree, the current climate is making it harder and harder to eat out (especially when you have 5 kids 😉)
Thank you for taking the time to come back and comment.
Cx
Marybeth says
What is a good brand for Chinese cooking wine?
Claire | Sprinkles and Sprouts says
I usually buy the Double Phoenix brand from the local Asian grocers. But at the main grocery store, the most common one I get is Pandaroo.
Hope that helps 🙂
Cx
Ken says
I'm very allergic to crustaceans. What would be a good substitute for the shrimp? I was thinking beef or pork.
Claire | Sprinkles and Sprouts says
Hi Ken,
Pork or beef would work well.
For the beef I would use Flank, Skirt, Rump or Round Steaks cut into strips.
And for the pork I would use pork tenderloin cut into pieces.
I would tenderise them both in the same way as the chicken.
You can find more information about tenderising the beef in this post Cantonese Beef and Tomato
And you can tenderise the pork in the same way.
Hope that helps 🙂
Cx
Henry says
Really good recipe. However, I have never seen this on a takeaway menu in the Uk, or a restaurant.
Claire | Sprinkles and Sprouts says
Hi Henry,
Glad you enjoyed the recipe ☺️
It was in the Chef's Specialty section of the Chinese in the town where I grew up and then on the menu at one of the takeaways shops closest to my house when I was at Uni.
And I am pretty sure it was a special at the local takeaway when I lived in Grantham.
Odd that it isn't an item you have seen. But I also haven't lived in the UK for almost 15 years so maybe it wasn't popular anymore?
But hey, no matter, now we can make it at home anyway and avoid the takeaway 😉
Cx
Melanie says
I can't even see the recipe due to all the pop up ads. So not okay. I tried to remove them and no luck. So very sad.
Claire | Sprinkles and Sprouts says
I will talk to my ad company as that shouldn't happen.
The point of my site is the recipe and the ads shouldn't prevent you seeing it.
Cx
Ray says
If you don't want to use bicarb you can just use light soy and potato starch with a dash of water and a drizzle of veg oil, it velvets the chicken perfectly without the nasty smell from the bicarb on the chicken.
Barb says
A new favourite stir fry recipe for sure. The chicken was so tender and the flavours were great. If I had this dish at a restaurant It would become a favourite.
ADRIAN HOWDEN says
Made it recently with a few tweeks and every one loved it. So I have to print out the recipes for them to take home. Thanks for the recipe. This will be a reguler in our household.
mavee125 says
This Wandering Dragon Stir Fry recipe is so good! I used Kikkoman Manjo Aji Mirin as substitute to the Chinese Rice Wine and it's absolutely delicious! It's my fam's new fave dish.
Julio says
I’ve made this twice now. I can’t believe how authentic it tastes. It’s like I just bought it from the Chinese takeaway. It’s also so quick to make (after the chicken prep lol). Am making it again tomorrow to take to work for my dinner
Claire McEwen says
Oh I am so pleased you enjoyed it 🙂
I love making takeaway dishes at home!
The chicken does take a bit of time, but so worth it for the soft Chinese style texture.
Cx
JOHN CARTWRIGHT says
in my top 10, of anything, i have ever ate
Darcy says
Really love this recipe, tastes exactly like the one from the Chinese takeaway here in the UK and it’s so yummy but much healthier!!
Juhi says
This recipe is a keeper. Made this yesterday, served with egg noodles and we licked the bowls clean. Thank-you!
Claire McEwen says
Oh I am so pleased you enjoyed it Juhi.
It is a favorite in our house too! (I actually bought some flank steak earlier today to make this in the week!)
Thank you for coming back to comment 🙂
Cx