Walnut Chicken Dices
A traditional Zhejiang dish of stir-fried walnuts with chicken—sweet, fragrant, and tender.
Ingredients
Walnut kernels (soaked in water to soften and remove skin)
100 g
Chicken meat (sliced into thick pieces, scored in cross pattern, then diced)
300 g
Egg white (for mixing with chicken)
1
Winter bamboo shoots (diced and blanched)
75 g
Wet shiitake mushrooms (diced and blanched)
25 g
Wet cornstarch (half for mixing with chicken, half for sauce)
1 tbsp
Monosodium glutamate
1.5 tsp
Light soy sauce
3 tsp
Cooking wine
3 tsp
Ginger (minced)
1
Scallion (chopped into rings)
1
Fine salt
2 tsp
Vegetable oil (for frying)
500 g
Instructions
1
Marinating Chicken Dices
Slice the chicken into thick pieces, score in a cross pattern, then cut into cubes. Mix with egg white and half of the wet cornstarch.
2
Preparing Ingredients
Soak walnut kernels in water to soften and remove the skin. Dice the winter bamboo shoots and shiitake mushrooms, then blanch. Chop scallion into rings and mince the ginger.
3
Preparing Sauce
In a bowl, combine broth, fine salt, monosodium glutamate, half of the wet cornstarch, and light soy sauce to make the sauce.
4
Frying Walnut Kernels
Drop the walnut kernels into hot oil and fry until lightly golden, then quickly remove them (avoid overcooking which causes bitterness). Then fry the chicken dices and bamboo shoot dices briefly until just cooked through and remove.
5
Stir-frying and Plating
Leave some oil in the wok, add minced ginger, scallion rings, shiitake dices, chicken dices, bamboo shoot dices, walnut kernels, and cooking wine. Stir-fry, pour in the prepared sauce, mix well, and plate.
