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Chinese Sausage and Chicken in Soy Sauce

Name: Chinese Sausage and Chicken in Soy Sauce
Prep time: 8 h
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 8 h 30 min
Ingredients: 4 (200 gram / 7 oz) Chinese sausages (Chinese: 腊肠 - lap cheong); 8-10 dried (40 gram / 1.5 oz) dried shiitake mushrooms; 5-6 (600 gram / 20 oz) boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into cubes; 2 tablespoon oil; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 2 scallions, thinly sliced; 1/4 cup water; 1/4 cup shiitake soaking liquid; 3 tablespoon dark soy sauce; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 teaspoon ground white pepper/ground black pepper

Last updated: Jun 15, 2020 — Published: Sep 19, 2013 — By: Anita — 10 comments

Use Chinese sausages (lap cheong), dried shiitake mushrooms, and dark soy sauce to turn these Chinese pantry staples into a chicken dish that is bursting with flavors.

Chinese sausage (lap cheong) and chicken in soy sauce.

All cuisines have delicious dishes using pantry staples ingredients. For the Chinese, one such dish is this Chinese sausage and chicken in soy sauce. The main ingredients are chicken thigh, Chinese sausages, and dried shiitake mushrooms.

Most Chinese families usually stock packages of Chinese sausages, dried shiitake mushrooms, and dark soy sauce in their pantry cupboard. So this is an easy and convenient dish to prepare when I don’t have the time to do grocery shopping for fresh ingredients.

Ingredients for Chinese sausage and chicken in soy sauce: Chinese sausage, chicken thigh, dried shiitake, garlic, scallions, dark soy sauce, sugar, white pepper (not shown), and water.

Ingredients for this chicken dish

To make this dish, we will need Chinese sausages, dried shiitake mushrooms, chicken meat (preferably thigh), garlic, scallions, dark soy sauce, sugar, ground pepper (preferably white pepper), water, and oil.

Chinese sausages

There are several varieties of Chinese sausages. For this dish, we want to use lap cheong (腊肠), a Cantonese style sausage made from pork and pork fat, sweetened and seasoned with rose water, rice wine, and soy sauce.

Chinese sausages are typically sold in plastic packaging. If you are in the US, the easiest and most available Chinese sausages are produced by Kam Yen Jan. You can store the sausages at room temperature when they are still vacuum-sealed in its original packaging, but please refrigerate any leftover once you open the packaging.

Dried shiitake mushrooms

Although you can use fresh shiitake mushrooms for this dish, I highly suggest sticking to dried shiitake mushrooms. I find that the flavor is at least 10x better when using dried mushrooms compared to fresh ones.

Dark soy sauce

Chinese dark soy sauce is different than regular soy sauce or Chinese light soy sauce. It has a thicker body, very dark color, and a slightly sweeter taste compared to regular/light soy sauce.

The main function of a dark soy sauce is to impart dark color to finished dishes, which you can’t achieve with a regular/light soy sauce.

If you don’t stock dark soy sauce in your pantry, you can still make this dish with your regular soy sauce or light soy sauce. The dish will still be tasty, it just won’t have that dark color, which should be fine.

(Left) Steam sausages for 5 minutes. (Right) Cut steamed sausages into thin slices diagonally.

Preparing Chinese sausage and dried shiitake mushrooms

How to prepare Chinese sausages

Please prepare a steamer over medium-high heat. Once the water is boiling and the steamer has produced plenty of steam, steam the sausages in a steamer proof dish for 5 minutes. Remove from the steamer and then cut the steamed sausages into thin slices diagonally.

How to prepare dried shiitake mushrooms

Soak dried shiitake mushrooms in cold water overnight until soft and rehydrated. Gently squeeze the soaked mushrooms. Use a sharp knife to cut and discard the stems, then cut the mushroom caps into thin slices. Reserve the soaking liquid for the sauce.

(1) Sauté garlic. (2) Add sausages. (3) Add chicken and shiitake. (4) Add dark soy sauce, water, shiitake soaking water, sugar, and white pepper.

Step-by-step to cooking this chicken dish

First, prepare the sauce by mixing 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup shiitake soaking liquid, 3 tablespoons dark soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1 teaspoon ground white pepper. Set aside.

Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Sauté garlic for 2 minutes or until fragrant.

Add Chinese sausages and cook for 30 seconds, then add chicken and mushrooms and cook until chicken is no longer pink.

Pour the sauce into the wok and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked and the sauce has reduced.

Turn off the heat and stir in half of the scallions and mix well.

Transfer the dish to a serving plate. Garnish with the remaining scallions. Serve with steamed white rice.

Toss in half of the thinly sliced scallions at the end of the cooking time.

Other dishes using Chinese sausages

If you love this dish and want to use Chinese sausages to prepare other dishes, you can try the following recipes:

You can add thinly sliced Chinese sausage when cooking fried rice or fried noodles. I usually add about 1/4 sausage per serving when I prepare fried rice/noodles on top of the usual mixture of thinly sliced meat (chicken/beef/pork), eggs, and vegetables (mung bean sprouts, bok choy/yu choy, chives, and scallions).