Chicken Stewed with Hazel Mushrooms 小鸡炖榛蘑
Chicken Stewed with Hazel Mushrooms is featured among the local specialties of Heilongjiang.
Chicken Stewed with Hazel Mushrooms (小鸡炖榛蘑) is the Northeast Chinese stew of chicken and hazel mushrooms, the name that spells out which mushroom goes into the pot. Hazel mushroom (榛蘑) is one of the Chinese names for the honey mushroom, Armillaria mellea.
Ingredients
The honey mushroom grows in low and mid-altitude woodland in spring and autumn. The caps are two to eight centimetres across, usually honey-yellow or pale earthy yellow, sometimes whitish, with small scales on top and a honey-coloured ring on the stem; the flesh is soft but tough. Chinese Wikipedia calls the whole mushroom edible and very good, names this chicken stew as the well-known dish made with it, and notes that it can cause food allergy in some people.
Wild honey mushrooms grow in large numbers in coniferous forest, and for a long time they were among the very few edible mushrooms that could not be cultivated. Cultivation first came from growing gastrodia (天麻), which draws its nourishment from the fungus's threads, a practice dating from 1994. In 2017 mushroom farmers in Heilongjiang succeeded in cultivating the fruiting bodies, the hazel mushrooms themselves; they can be grown under forest cover or in growing bags.
How it is made
The dish began in Northeast China and is made by stewing the region's local hazel mushrooms with chicken. In the basic version the chicken is stir-fried with spring onion and ginger, water is added and brought to the boil, and the mushrooms go in last to stew until cooked. Potatoes or starch noodles (粉条) may be added to taste.
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Chicken Stewed with Mushrooms 小鸡炖蘑菇 →
The same stew under its more common name; that page covers the dish's Manchu and Qing imperial background.
