I adjusted the ratios somewhat for this one. We had twice as much chicken as the recipe called for, so I doubled the marinade and bumped up the rice slightly¹. However, we were a bit light on mushrooms, so they were scaled back a bit. And we'd just harvested a bunch of silverbeet (chard) out of the garden a couple of days ago, so I didn't want to try to take any more yet. This left me trying to swap in frozen chopped spinach. Which was fine, but I didn't want to overdo it, so I just put in a relatively small amount.

The final result was tasty, but I do think that it would have been better with more mushrooms and greens (and a bit more salt). All of these changes are reflected in the write-up below.

Ginger Rice with Chicken and Mushrooms

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 4 skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 2 Tbsp. dark soy sauce²
• 2 Tbsp. Shaoxing wine (绍兴酒)
• 2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp. Chinese five-spice powder
• 1 Tbsp. oil (optional)
• 1 onion, chopped (optional)
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
• 2 c. jasmine rice
• 4 c. water
• 400-500g Swiss chard (silverbeet) and/or kale, chopped
• 250g mushrooms (preferably a mix of shiitake and cremini), sliced
• 2-3 green onions, sliced

Directions

1. Combine chicken, ginger, oyster sauce, soy sauce, wine, sesame oil, and five-spice powder and mix well. Set aside for 10-20 minutes.
2. If using onion and garlic, heat the oil over medium heat and sauté until softened (3-5 minutes).³
3. Add the rice, water, greens, mushrooms, and chicken (along with all of its marinade) to the pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook until rice is tender (15-20 minutes).
5. Remove from heat, fluff rice, and allow to stand, covered, for 10 minutes.
6. Sprinkle with green onions and serve.

---

¹ Not double. I just nudged the rice up by 1/3. But, honestly, for the amount of everything else that I had in the pot, it might've been better not to scale the rice up after all. It was tasty this way, but definitely could've used more mushrooms and greens. Which the recipe write-up reflects. ^Back
2 I used light soy here because the recipe didn't specify and it was what I had easily to hand but, having tasted it, I think that dark soy (or a blend of dark and light) would work better than light alone. ^Back
3 The original recipe didn't call for any onion or garlic and I didn't use any this time. But, having tasted it, I think some more aromatics would go nicely, so I've added them to the recipe as an optional extra. ^Back