Today, I plan to prepare a simple home-cooked meal: Steamed Chicken with Chinese Sausage.

After having so much rich and extravagant food during the festival season, it would be refreshing to give our taste buds a break from the excessive stimulation.

Steamed Chinese Sausage with Chicken is a traditional everyday Chinese meal made with boneless chicken, Chinese sausage, dried shiitake mushrooms, cloud ears mushrooms, and Chinese red dates. Cantonese families have enjoyed this classic dish for generations, and I, too, have been eating it since I was young.

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1. How to prepare steamed Chinese sausage with chicken

a. Chicken

To begin with, cut the chicken meat into bite-size pieces. You can use boneless chicken thighs or chicken breast, according to your preference. 

Marinate the chicken with common seasonings in Chinese cooking, such as light soy sauce, Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry), sesame oil, salt, and cornstarch.  The full seasoning list is in the recipe, but you can also make your twist by adding some dark soy sauce and white pepper.

Cornstarch helps to make the chicken more velvety after steaming. You can also add some oyster sauce if you like. I added some vegetable oil to the marinade since chicken meat is relatively low in fat.

One crucial aspect of this dish is the use of fresh chicken meat. Steaming is a gentle cooking method that enhances the freshness of the ingredients as opposed to stir-frying or baking. The steaming process accentuates the subtle variation between the taste of frozen and fresh chicken, making it more noticeable.

b. Chinese sausage

The Chinese sausages (lap cheong/ 腊肠) should be blanched in boiling water for 30 seconds before cutting into slices. Blanching them loosens the casing, making it easier to remove the sausage from it.

Once blanched, the sausages should be sliced thinly and diagonally into thin pieces.

c. Dried shitake mushrooms

Another essential ingredient for this recipe is dried shiitake mushrooms. The mushrooms must be rehydrated before use. To do this, soak them in water until they are fully hydrated and soft. Then, cut away the tough stems and slice the mushrooms thinly.

The time needed for mushrooms to become soft depends on their size and thickness. To speed up the process, I soak them in hot water. Another trick is to place a heavy object, like a ceramic bowl, on top of the mushrooms to ensure they are fully submerged in the water. 

Once the mushrooms have softened, remove the stems and slice them into thick slices.

There is a significant difference in flavor between dry and fresh shiitake mushrooms. Dry shiitake mushrooms have a more intense flavor, so they should not be substituted with fresh mushrooms.

d. Other secondary ingredients

Other supporting ingredients are dried red dates 红枣, cloud ear fungus 云耳, and goji berries 杞子.

Dried red dates

I used scissors to cut the dried red dates without soaking them, as the dates were quite soft. However, if you have larger and harder dates, soak them briefly in water before cutting them into smaller pieces. Make sure to remove the seeds from the dates. Dried red dates taste slightly sweet, and their flavor blends well with all other ingredients.

Cloud ear mushrooms

Cloud ear mushrooms, also known as cloud ear fungus, can be substituted with wood ear mushrooms if unavailable. However, wood ear mushrooms 木耳 are larger and thicker, so you must cut them into smaller slices after soaking. The cloud ear fungus is relatively smaller, so you can leave them as they are.

Both types of fungus will expand in water and become several times larger in size after rehydrating. They absorb water quickly and will be fully rehydrated in less than half an hour. This is in contrast to dried shiitake mushrooms, which can take more than an hour to rehydrate. Both types of fungus have a slippery and crunchy texture, which differs from the texture of the sausage and chicken in the dish.

Goji berries

There is one more ingredient that I’m not using today, which is goji berries. If you have them, wash them and soak them in water briefly to make them soft. Then, squeeze out all the water, and they will be ready to use. Goji berries have a mild flavor, so their absence won’t significantly impact the taste.

Note: Most of the abovementioned ingredients are usually available in Asian markets.

2. Steam the sausage, chicken, and the rest

1. Once you have all the required ingredients ready, place the marinated chicken pieces and all other ingredients on a steaming plate. A stainless steel steaming plate is recommended as it is an excellent conductor of heat preferred by most Cantonese families. However, if you prefer a ceramic plate, that is fine too. Just note that you may need to steam the chicken slightly longer to ensure it is cooked.
2. If you do not have a steamer, you can use a large wok with a trivet and a wok cover to set up a makeshift steaming station.
3. Steam the ingredients for 15-20 minutes over high heat until thoroughly cooked.
4. Once it is ready, remove it from the steamer, and the delicious steamed chicken with Chinese sausage and mushrooms is ready. 
5. You can sprinkle chopped green onions (spring onions) on top of the chicken and sausages as an optional garnish.

Remember to prepare plain white rice to serve together, as it perfectly complements the steamed sausage and chicken flavors.

Note: If you have any leftover Chinese sausage and preserved Chinese meat, you can use them to make a popular dish called Lap Mei Fan ( preserved meat rice.) in a clay pot. However, I won’t make this dish this time because I do not have all the necessary ingredients.

3. Other dishes related to this Chinese recipe

If you enjoy this Cantonese steamed chicken recipe with Chinese sausage, consider using Chinese sausage in other recipes. Here are my top picks.

• If you are a fan of fried rice, try this recipe for Chinese sausage fried rice. It is easy to make and tastes deliciously with the sausage. 
• Steaming is a simple and healthy cooking technique to prepare various dishes. You can try the traditional steamed egg recipe, which includes salted egg and century egg.