A humble Chinese chicken stew made with earthy mushrooms and the familiar soy sauce based Asian brown sauce is bound to bring nostalgia and comfort to all those that grew up in a Chinese immigrant household. My mom would make this dish a lot, but usually with the dried shitake mushrooms instead of fresh baby bella mushrooms. And while this dish is very economical--hey who doesn't need that now a days with grocery prices on the rise every week?!-, this stew is packed with flavor.
It's interesting that a google of the term "brown sauce" gave me this article and this article that indicated that the Asian brown sauce is a westernized concoction for Chinese "takeout food". I'll have to ask my mom if her brown sauce was an attempt imitate a Chinese takeout dish she had a long time ago, but I don't think so. Soy sauce, oyster sauce, and chicken broth were common ingredients in our kitchen growing up, and she just threw in various ratios of these til the dish tasted good...
Anyways, whatever the origins of the brown sauce, make sure you make plenty of rice to soak up that amazingly good sauce!
Here's step by step in pictures for how to make this:
Ingredients:
- 12 -13 chicken drumsticks (~3 lbs)
- 1 t salt
- 8 cloves garlic, rough chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 lb baby carrots
- 2 c low sodium chicken broth
- 1 lb fresh baby bella (or button) mushrooms, cut in half
- chopped scallions for garnish
Ingredients for brown sauce:
- 1 T oyster sauce (Lee Kum Kee brand)*
- 1 T soy sauce
- ½ t dark soy sauce
- ½ t sugar
- 1 t fish sauce
- 1 T cornstarch
- ¼ c water
1. Marinate chicken with 1 t salt overnight in the fridge.
2. The next day, prepare the sauce in a bowl by mixing in the oyster sauce, soy sauces, sugar, fish sauce, cornstarch and water. Set aside. (* My favorite brand of oyster sauce is Lee Kum Kee. It's a bit pricier than other brands, but I find the oyster flavor more pronounced compared to the other brands.)
3. Heat a large pan with some olive oil, and saute onions, carrots and garlic for a few minutes.
4. Add in the chicken. Give everything a stir before adding in the chicken broth.
5. Cover pan with a lid, leaving a crack open for steam to escape. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. After 20 minutes, add in the mushrooms, and cover pan with lid to allow the mushrooms to cook for 10 minutes. Then open the lid, give everything a stir, and simmer without the lid for 5 minutes to allow the sauce to evaporate a bit. (Total time for simmering this stew is about 35 minutes or so.)
7. Now add in the cornstarch slurry, and mix under medium high heat until the sauce thickens and coats the chicken. When the sauce is sufficiently thickened, turn off the heat. Taste and add more oyster sauce or soy sauce to your taste. Garnish with chopped scallions. Serve hot over rice.