Takeout Style Chinese Chicken and Mushrooms is a delicious stir fry that is quick to make and includes a wonderful savory brown Chinese sauce. This takeaway style Chinese recipe is quick to make and tastes so much better than takeout! Paired with steamed rice it is a healthy Chinese weeknight meal, or add some fried rice for the takeaway experience. Plus I’ll show you how to get the soft tender chicken just like your favorite takeaway.
Cut the chicken into thin strips across the grain.
Place in a bowl and sprinkle with the baking soda, stir gently to coat all of the chicken. Then cover and let the chicken marinate for 15 minutes.
Wash off the baking soda and rinse the chicken several times. (See note 6)
Pat the chicken dry with kitchen paper and set to one side.
Next make the sauce.
Add all the sauce ingredients into a large measuring cup/jug and stir well. Ensure the broth is cold to stop the cornstarch from clumping.
For the stir fry
Pour the oil into a heavy-based frying pan and place over high heat.
Whilst the oil is heating up remove the roots from the green onions and chop them into 2-inch (5cm) length chunks.
Add the green onions to the oil (be careful it can spit) and stir fry them for 1 minute to flavor the oil.
Add the chicken to the pan and cook for 2 minutes stirring constantly.
Add in the chopped mushrooms and stir fry for a further 2 minutes.
Add the sliced garlic and stir constantly for a minute.
Give the prepared sauce another stir and then pour it into the pan. The sauce will thicken quickly so stir it to coat your stir fry. (see note 4).
Serve immediately.
Notes
Baking soda is also known as bicarb of soda, bicarbonate of soda and sodium bicarbonate. Don’t get it muddled with baking powder, that won’t tenderise you meat.
Green onions are also known as scallions in the US. And are known as Spring Onions in the UK and Australia.
Make sure the broth is cold, this will ensure that the cornstarch/cornflour dissolves fully and doesn’t clump together.
The sauce thickens quickly to that real thick Chinese takeout style sauce. If you aren’t a fan of the thick coating takeaway style sauces then you can reduce the quantity of cornstarch to 1 ½ tablespoon if you just want a thinner sauce.
You can buy Chinese cooking wine in the Asian section of the grocery store, but if you can’t find it then you can use dry sherry. (See bulk of post for more information on Chinese Cooking Wine)
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.