How To Make Chinese Chicken and Potato Stew
Oct 11th, 2007 by admin
Chinese chicken and potato stew is my all-time favourite childhood dish. I think my mother invented this many years ago, and she always cooks it for me. Other relatives have tried making it, but it’s never quite the same. My mother wrote down some of her personal recipes and sent them to me when I went to live in Beijing, and ten years on, I still have them. This is one of those treasured recipes, and I recently attempted to replicate it for the first time…
Ingredients: (serves 4)
Chicken Marinade:
- 1 tsp salt
- pinch white pepper
- 1½ tbsp soy sauce
- ½ tsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- cornflour / cornstarch
- 1 chicken
The Stew:
- 4-6 good sized dried Chinese mushrooms
- carrots
- leek
- potatoes
- onions
- 3 slices fresh ginger, with peel left on
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 or 3 spring onions
- vegetable oil
- ½ tsp sugar
- ½ tsp soy sauce
What to do next:
Soak Chinese mushrooms in hot water until soft (I did it for 30 minutes), then remove stalks and slice.
Chop up a chicken – it’s better to use a whole chicken rather than breast meat, as the thigh parts are full of flavour. My mother removed the skin from the chicken pieces, but kept the thigh bones. I also don’t remember the wings ever being used (they must have been saved for another dish!).
Marinade chicken in a bowl for 30 minutes with one tsp salt, pinch of white pepper, 1½ tbsp soy sauce, ½ tsp white vinegar, 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp cornflour.
Chop up some carrots, leek, potato and onion into largish pieces (it’s a rustic stew, so if the pieces are too small, they will disappear).
Heat wok or large saucepan with some vegetable oil and add 2 or 3 pieces of chopped ginger (with the peel left on) and crushed garlic gloves. Fry the chicken in the ginger, garlic and some of the onion for about 10 minutes, or until the meat is almost half cooked. Then add the rest of the vegetables with the rest of the onion.
Boil some water in a kettle.
Add a little salt, ½ tsp sugar and ½ tsp soy sauce, white pepper and hot water. You need enough water to cover the ingredients, but it will cook off, so don’t worry if you think you’ve added too much. The wok or saucepan should be covered with a lid, otherwise it will take a very long time to cook.
Simmer on a low heat for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Add some chopped spring onion (2 or 3 inches in length), and cook for another 5 minutes.
Check to see whether the sauce is thick or runny, as some types of potato absorb more water than others. If it’s runny, mix 1 teaspoon of cornflour to 2 teaspoons of cold water and stir well, then add to the sauce and stir for a further 2 minutes. Alternatively, turn up the heat, remove the lid and stir for a few minutes until the sauce thickens.
Serve with other dishes and steamed white rice as part of a family meal. Or just eat it on its own, like I did. It’s even tastier the next day, as with most stews. Enjoy!
See my recent post on my favourite Cantonese home-cooked meals for my mother’s other recipes.
Click for all Chinese recipes on World Foodie Guide
I saw this recipe and want to try it. But, I have a couple of questions. How much cornstarch should I use to marinade the chicken. Also, after you add the water and cover the wok with a lid, how long should we cook it for? Thank you!
Anna – thanks for visiting and for wanting to try out my favourite dish! When I wrote a little, that’s what my mother wrote & I haven’t yet made this myself. I’d start with a teaspoon or two, as she never uses that much. You can adjust it depending on how much chicken you use (she chops up a chicken but you might not want to use a whole chicken). You cook it for as long as it takes for the chicken pieces and potatoes to be cooked, so I’d say at least half an hour on a low heat. But the longer you cook it, the more flavoursome it will become (and it tastes better the next day!). The consistency of the sauce shouldn’t be runny, nor gloopy. I’ll try and make this myself over the next couple of weeks and we can compare notes if you like. I might adjust the recipe slightly, as my mother never cooks from recipes, so I’ll test it and let you know…
Helen Yuet Ling
My boyfriend’s mother taught him how to make something similar to this. They call it “Brown Chicken” and they add a little black bean sauce to it to give it some extra flavour
Cece – hello! ‘Brown chicken’, how interesting. I think each Chinese family must have its own unique recipe for a comforting stew. I still haven’t dared to replicate my mother’s dish but am gathering the ingredients together to make an attempt soon and take photos if it looks at all similar to the original!
Helen Yuet Ling
I am Cantonese. Our family has been cooking a similar dish for scores of years. When my children wewe young, I used to cut up the boneless chicken into half inch cubes. The potatoes and carrots were cut into the same size. I added defrosted peas to the dish a few minutes before serving. My dish differs from your mother’s slightly. I added about a dessertspoonful of oyster flavoured sauce. Try adding this and see if you like.
I will add my comment on steamed egg in the appropriate section.
Ivana – interesting to hear your family also has a similar dish. Thanks for the tip, but I won’t be adding oyster flavoured sauce to mine. Otherwise it won’t taste like my mother’s cooking!
Helen Yuet Ling