Plum Sauce Chicken with Mushrooms and Pine Nuts

Poultry

Plum Sauce Chicken with Mushrooms and Pine Nuts
Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons corn oil
1 two-pound chicken cut into about twenty to twenty-four small pieces
6 shiitake mushrooms, soaked a half hour in a cup of warm water
1 Tablespoons thin soy sauce
2 Tablespoons dry sherry
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, peeled and flattened with side of the cleaver
1 slice fresh ginger, flattened with the side of the cleaver
1/2 cup of the mushroom soaking liquid
1/2 cup plum sauce
2 Tablespoons catsup
3 dried chili peppers, cut in half
2 whole star anise
1 medium onion, cut into one-quarter-inch slices
1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 1 teaspoon cold water
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Preparation:
1. Heat oil in a wok and brown the chicken, one-quarter of it at a time. Drain and set aside until all the pieces are browned on all sides.
2. Put the soy sauce, sherry, sugar, garlic, ginger, mushroom water, plum sauce, catsup, chili peppers, and star anise into a casserole and slowly heat the contents.
3. While that is cooking, fry the onion in the wok, then the mushrooms. Add chicken and onions and mushrooms to the casserole and mix well.
4. Cover the casserole and simmer for forty-five minutes mixing the contents once or twice. Uncover and discard the ginger and stir in the pre-stirred cornstarch-water mixture and cook for a few minutes until slightly thickened.
5. Stir in the pine nuts and the sesame oil, mix well, and serve.

Flavor and Fortune is a magazine of: