This Mongolian hen is a kind of recipes that quietly earns its place on the common dinner rota. Tender strips of hen cooked in a shiny garlic-ginger soy sauce, completed with spring onions and spooned over sizzling rice — it’s fast (prepared in 25 minutes!), comforting and stuffed with flavour with out being heavy. And simply take a look at how that sauce soaks into the rice 😋.

Nicky’s Notes

This Mongolian hen is all about tender hen and a shiny, well-balanced sauce. A light-weight coating of cornflour helps hold the hen juicy whereas giving the sauce one thing to cling to.

Cooking the hen first and setting it apart means it stays tender. It additionally offers you management over the sauce, so it has time to thicken correctly earlier than the hen goes again in.

The sauce itself is easy however rigorously balanced. Garlic and ginger are cooked briefly so that they keep aromatic, then the sauce is simmered for a few minutes to create that wealthy, shiny end.

That is a kind of dishes the place soy sauce selection actually issues. I have a tendency to succeed in for a reduced-salt choice at house, because it offers loads of savoury depth with out overpowering the remainder of the flavours.

📋 Substances for Mongolian Hen

***Full recipe with detailed portions within the recipe card under***

Word on the Hen

I’m utilizing hen breast fillets sliced into skinny strips as it really works very well and jogs my memory of that takeout type Mongolian hen. In the event you needed you can swap it out for boneless hen thigh fillets, they’d work simply high-quality too.

Word on the sugar

I want to make use of Muscovado sugar for this because it has a lovely roasted molasses flavour. So it’s preferable that you simply use it. However in the event you completely can’t discover it any gentle brown or darkish brown sugar will work.

Word on the Soy Sauce

I’ve examined this recipe with varied totally different soy sauces, I initially used common darkish soy sauce on this recipe, however the salt quantity can range a lot between manufacturers that some readers had been discovering it too salty. For instance Amoy darkish is 15.8g of salt per 100ml, in comparison with Pearl River Bridge which is 23.5g salt per 100ml.
A low sodium soy sauce is now my favorite selection (Amoy decreased salt, Kikkoman inexperienced cap) or I’ll use common Amoy darkish, because it’s naturally a bit decrease in salt.

Abbreviated Recipe

***Full recipe with detailed steps within the recipe card under***

Frivolously coat the hen strips and pan-fry till simply cooked via, then put aside.
Simmer garlic, ginger, soy sauce and sugar till thick and shiny.
Return the hen to the pan, toss to coat, then serve over rice.

Deeply savoury with a delicate sweetness, heat garlic and aromatic ginger, all wrapped in a shiny sauce that brings every thing collectively — and it’s prepared surprisingly rapidly.

🍽️ What to serve it with

I really like serving this Mongolian hen over plain boiled rice, completed with a lightweight sprinkling of sesame seeds or chilli flakes in the event you fancy a bit additional kick.

• Egg Fried Rice – excellent for absorbing that shiny sauce
• Stir-Fried Greens (corresponding to broccoli, pak choi or inexperienced beans) for a recent distinction
• Easy Noodles with beansprouts additionally work