mushu chicken

Here's a good recipe for home-made mushu chicken. Basically its like a stir fry of shredded ingredients served with thin chinese pancakes. You can't really go wrong with any other meat / veggies as long as their chopped finely and fried with egg, cabbage and mushrooms- which tend to be in any mushu's that I've ever eaten. If you don't have the correct pancakes- you can substitute with thin tortillias (shhhh!!!!) but it just ain't the same. This is serious comfort food.

Ingredients

1/2 Wombok cabbage, shredded
2 cups mushrooms- dried/sliced
1 can straw mushrooms
3 eggs
1 can sliced bamboo shoots
3 cups bean sprouts
6 chicken thigh fillets
1/2 cup mirin
4 tbsp soya
4 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp ketchup manis (sweet soy)
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cloves crushed garlic
Pepper

Method

1. Shred all ingredients finely. Re-hydrate dried and sliced mushrooms in boiling water. Heat the wok with the veggie oil, and throw the chicken in. Toss and brown, then add 2 tbsp soya and garlic.

2. When the chicken is 4/5 cooked through, throw in the mushrooms and bamboo shoots, and the oyster sauce. Stir and fry for a couple minutes. Then add the cabbage, and the bean shoots, along with the mirin, stir quickly and leave to fry without stirring for 2 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, beat the eggs with the ketchup manis. Fry in a separate pan over high heat making a sort of egg-only pancake. Flip and cook other side. Break into small shreds with spatula, and add to the wok.

4. Stir ingredients, there will be a little liquid in the bottom of the wok. You can either drain everything and discard that, or thicken it with 1/2 tbsp of cornstarch with water. Remeber it should be moist but not runny, honey.

Serve with hoisin sauce, long onion pieces cucumber strips on the side, and chinese pancakes of course!