This Moo Goo Gai Pan is a classic take on a traditional Chinese dish. It’s a dish of chicken and lots of vegetables with a delicious, savory sauce. An easy recipe that brings your favorite Chinese flavors straight to your dinner table.
Moo Goo Gai Pan
The traditional recipe is essentially chicken with mushrooms, mixed with some other veggies that seem to vary depending on who is preparing it. The secret to this dish is preparing all your ingredients first, because it all cooks rather quickly.
While looking at the ingredient list for this recipe could scare you away, don’t worry, it’s crazy how simple this dish is too cook. Prepping all your ingredients, literally is the hardest part of making this recipe because cooking it takes 5 to 7 minutes. How easy does that sound? This is why Asian cooking is so easy, once all your ingredients are ready and prepped, cooking the dish is super quick!
Ingredient Notes
- Chicken – I used boneless skinless chicken breast, cut in half lengthwise, then thinly sliced against the grain, about â…›-inch thick. You are looking for thin slices of chicken, this will ensure fast cooking.
- Veggies – An abundance of fresh veggies like medium carrot thinly sliced on diagonal â…›-inch in thickness, white mushrooms or cremini mushrooms, sliced ¼-inch thick, water chestnuts drained, bamboo shoots sliced and drained, napa cabbage separate leaves from stalk, stalk cut into 1 inch pieces, and leaves about 2 inches, garlic and snow peas.
- Cornstarch – To help with the thickness of the sauce and coating of the chicken.
- Broth – Low sodium chicken broth for extra flavor.
- Seasoning – White pepper, garlic powder and salt to help with enhancing the flavors.
- Sesame Oil – Do you know the reason we add sesame oil at the very end to the dish? If you add it in the beginning, that beautiful nutty, toasty taste will disappear while the dish is cooking. This way by adding it at the end, it’s nice and fresh and you can actually taste it in the dish.
- Wine – You need Shaoxing wine which is a Chinese rice wine. If you can’t find it or don’t have it a great replacement is mirin, sake, or a dry sherry.
How to Make Moo Goo Gai Pan
- Prep the chicken:Â In a small bowl combine the chicken pieces with the salt, white pepper, garlic powder and water. Mix well and let marinate for 10 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch really well until the chicken is coated and you can no longer see white powder. Drizzle a tbsp of the vegetable oil over the chicken and stir well.
- Cook the chicken:Â In a large wok, heat the remaining 2 tbsp of vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add the chicken, spread it out for even cooking and cook it until it’s about 60% cooked through, should take a couple minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate.
- Cook the veggies:Â If there’s no more oil left in the wok, add another tbsp or so of vegetable oil. Add the carrots, mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and white parts of the napa cabbage to the wok and stir fry for about 10 seconds. Add in the garlic and stir fry for another minute. Stir in the snow peas, cooked chicken, and napa leaves. Stir fry for another 30 seconds.
- Make the sauce:Â Stir in the shaoxing wine and stir fry for 10 seconds. Add in the salt, sugar, white pepper and stir. Add the chicken broth and cornstarch slurry and stir fry until sauce thickens, another 30 seconds. Lastly, stir in the sesame oil and remove from heat.
- Serve: Serve over rice or noodles.
FAQ’s and Expert Tips
FAQ’s
In literal terms it means Chicken with Mushrooms. The recipe is a Western version of a Cantonese dish, usually a simple stir-fried dish consisting of sliced or cubed chicken with white button mushrooms and other vegetables.
Even though the classic recipe uses this specific wine to enhance the staple flavors, you can definitely keep the wine out of the recipe if you’d prefer. However, keep in mind that this Shaoxing wine doesn’t smell much like alcohol. It is in fact vinegary, spicy and caramel-like.
The Moo Goo Gai Pan as any other stir fry recipe, works deliciously well with Jasmine rice, Basmati rice or even rice noodles. You can also use any other kind of noodles as well, such as egg noodles since the sauce coats them nicely and deliver the tasty flavors of the stir fry all over the noodles.
Expert Tips
- My biggest tip is to make sure all the ingredients are prepped and ready before you start cooking. Once you start cooking it all moves quite quick.
- Feel free to use other veggies you like, such as bok choy, broccoli or even celery for a nice crunch instead of water chestnuts.
Leftovers
Store leftovers covered in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Freezer
If you want to freeze moo goo gai pan, it’s best to freeze the chicken and the veggies separate from the sauce so they don’t turn out mushy when you thaw them out. Freezing in an airtight container and stored in the freezer, you can freeze this for up to 3 months.
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Moo Goo Gai Pan
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 pound chicken breast boneless skinless, cut in half lengthwise, then thinly sliced against the grain, about â…›-inch thick
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 3 tablespoon vegetable oil divided
Veggies
- ½ medium carrot thinly sliced on diagonal ⅛-inch in thickness
- 6 ounce white mushrooms or cremini mushrooms, sliced ¼-inch thick
- 8 ounce water chestnuts drained (1 can)
- 8 ounce bamboo shoots sliced, drained (1 can)
- 6 ounce napa cabbage separate leaves from stalk, stalk cut into 1 inch pieces, and leaves about 2 inches
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup snow peas
- 1 tablespoon shaoxing wine
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- 1 cup chicken broth low sodium
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch plus 1 tbsp water to make slurry
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Prep the chicken: In a small bowl combine the chicken pieces with the salt, white pepper, garlic powder and water. Mix well and let marinate for 10 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch really well until the chicken is coated and you can no longer see white powder. Drizzle a tbsp of the vegetable oil over the chicken and stir well.
- Cook the chicken: In a large wok, heat the remaining 2 tbsp of vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add the chicken, spread it out for even cooking and cook it until it's about 60% cooked through, should take a couple minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate.
- Cook the veggies: If there's no more oil left in the wok, add another tbsp or so of vegetable oil. Add the carrots, mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and white parts of the napa cabbage to the wok and stir fry for about 10 seconds. Add in the garlic and stir fry for another minute. Add in the snow peas, cooked chicken, and napa leaves. Stir fry for another 30 seconds.
- Make the sauce: Stir in the shoaxing wine and stir fry for 10 seconds. Add in the salt, sugar, white pepper and stir. Add the chicken broth and cornstarch slurry and stir fry until sauce thickens, another 30 seconds. Lastly, stir in the sesame oil and remove from heat.
- Serve: Serve over rice or noodles.
Recipe Notes
- My biggest tip is to make sure all the ingredients are prepped and ready before you start cooking. Once you start cooking it all moves quite quick.
- Feel free to use other veggies you like, such as bok choy, broccoli or even celery for a nice crunch instead of water chestnuts.
- Store leftovers covered in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
- If you want to freeze moo goo gai pan, it’s best to freeze the chicken and the veggies separate from the sauce so they don’t turn out mushy when you thaw them out. Freezing in an airtight container and stored in the freezer, you can freeze this for up to 3 months.
This was AMAZING. I used mirin because that’s what I had on hand. Absolutely amazing. This recipe will definitely be in my rotation.
So glad you liked it!
This was better than a restaurant! I used mirrin for the wine because I had some and chose celery over water chestnuts. It was delicious. Thank you for sharing.
That’s wonderful! We are so glad you enjoyed it!
Where are you sourcing your Shaoxing wine? I have searched the local grocery stores and it is not there. Thinking Amazon?? (thanks a bunch!)
That’s where I got mine, Amazon!
I have forgotten….what can I substitute for shaoxing wine? Thanks a bunch.
Hi Deborah,
You can switch it up to Mirin sake or dry sherry. You can also find other instructions and tips in the ingredient notes and FAQ’s in the post.
Let us know how it all turns out!
What can I use to replace the shaoxing wine? Balsamic vinegar?
Thank you
G
Mirin sake or dry sherry are great substitutes for that. Also, other tips and instructions you can find in the ingredient notes and FAQ’s.
Let us know how it all turns out!