This was a favorite in our household growing up. Grandma always knew she could put a smile on our faces when she made Gai Gok Fahn. And like most cooks of her generation, she never measured; it was simply couple spoonfuls of this, a sprinkling of that. But her dishes, every one of them, were amazing. So in my little attempt to replicate one of my family's truly scrumptious meals, I kinda, sorta laid out measurements, but as with most recipes, ingredients and ratios can be adjusted according to taste or to whatever you have on hand.
Anyway, here is the recipe I made:
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thigh (if you worry about silly things like fat or calories, you may certainly use breast meat, but the meat will be a bit dry at the end)
2 lengths Chinese sausage, cut into disks.
6 oz. fresh shitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced (if you're using dried, be sure to soak them for a couple hours beforehand, and you can use the flavorful mushroom water to cook the rice)
3 1/2 cups rice, rinsed
2 - 3 cups chicken broth or water3 T soy sauce
2 T Hsao Sing cooking wine3 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon white pepper
Oyster sauce to taste
Cut chicken into bite sized pieces, place into medium bowl, and add soy sauce, wine, sesame oil, white pepper, then stir to thoroughly combine. Place in refrigerator for about an hour to marinate. After the meat has soaked up the marinade, heat 1 tablespoon canola oil in a heavy dutch oven (I use a 5 quart enameled cast iron pot), and cook the chicken over med high heat until it has lost it's pink color, but not quite cooked through. Quickly remove meat to a bowl and place in refrigerator while you prepare the rice. Dump rice into the pot and add just enough broth or water to cover the rice by about a quarter inch. Don't worry if this doesn't seem like enough liquid, you will get extra moisture from the mushrooms and the chicken at the end. Bring to boil over medium high heat then cover and turn down to low. Check after 15 minutes. The rice should have soaked up the liquid, but still won't be quite done. Add the sliced mushrooms and the Chinese sausage. Cover again let cook for another 10 minutes. When the sausage is shiny, and the mushrooms are fragrant, add the chicken pieces in a single even layer over the top of the rice, and be sure to add whatever juices that accumulated at the bottom of the bowl. Cover, and turn heat up to medium to finish cooking the chicken. Check after 10 to 15 minutes. When the chicken is cooked through, pour a few tablespoons of oyster sauce evenly over the chicken then stir to mix up the rice, meat, and mushrooms. Turn off heat, cover again to let the whole thing steam and soak up the oyster sauce, about 5 minutes.
This dish is especially comforting on cool evenings, or when you have a major starch craving. Kids seem to like it, we did as kids, in fact, my son calls this "Mom's Famous Chicken and Rice." I hope you enjoy it, too.
Love,
Deb
