Introduction: Chicken in Black Bean Sauce

Chicken in Black Bean Sauce is my favourite dish at Chinese restaurants. This is a version I make at home.

I started cooking Chinese food in the 1980s when Ken Hom presented an inspiring series of BBC tv programmes. This recipe is based on his, though I add mushrooms (rather than the green peppers usually used in UK restaurants) and I thicken the sauce at the end.

Step 1: Ingredients (serves Two)

200 g chicken breast

2 large spring onions

2 cloves garlic

3 cm ginger

75 g button mushrooms

2 teaspoons salted dried black beans

2 teaspoons rice wine

2 teaspoons light soy sauce

2 teaspoons oil

150 ml chicken stock (I use low-salt stock cubes)

1 teaspoon cornflour

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Black pepper

Step 2: Prepare the Chicken and Vegetables

Slice the chicken thinly and marinade in the soy sauce and rice wine for 30 minutes. Chop the spring onions, grate the garlic and ginger, halve or quarter the mushrooms, roughly chop the black beans. Reserve some green bits of spring onion for the garnish.

Heat the oil in a wok over a high flame, add the garlic, ginger and spring onions and stirfry for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and black beans and stirfry until the chicken is just turning white. Add the mushrooms and stirfry for a minute.

Step 3: Make the Sauce

Pour in the stock and simmer for 5 minutes on a low heat. Mix the cornflour with a little cold water to form a paste. Stir this in to the chicken and simmer until thick and glossy.

Step 4: Serve

Garnish with chopped green spring onions and serve with boiled rice.

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