Ulog #222: Shanghai Chicken & Mushrooms Pasta

This is one of those food that brings me back to childhood memories. I use to eat this pasta dish at a pizza chain here in Malaysia called Shakey's. They have now shutdown and thus this dish is no where to be found. I wanted to reinvent this dish of my past and I'm pretty happy with the results that I've managed to come up with thus far.

I'm always improving on the recipe but I think I've nailed it this time!

As to why it's called Shanghai Chicken & Mushrooms, I have no idea. That's what they called it so I'm just using it as homage to what it was originally named as.

The Mushrooms

I start off with flower/shiitaki mushrooms that I slice up. You could use dry ones too and I think it would be better because it had more mushroom flavor after dehydrating. I also add in some inexpensive oyster mushrooms but you could omit this and just have the shiitaki instead.

I tear up the oyster mushrooms into strips to make it more uniform with the shiitaki slices. That way they look better at the end.

I then fry them up in butter with some minced garlic; about 1 bulb of garlic and lots of butter by the way. After they turn color and you have fragrance of garlic and mushroom filling your kitchen, add in flour to make a roux. This will help thicken the sauce at the end. Fry the mixture about 2-3 minutes to take out the doughey taste from the flour and then add in milk. I use full cream milk but you could use fresh milk or half and half for this.

I then season it with lots of crushed black pepper, salt, dried oregano, some worchestershire sauce, and chicken stock.

Leave this to simmer for about 5 minutes and you're done.

The Chicken

For the chicken, very simple. I add chicken breast; whole, to water that I've added salt and black pepper to and turn the gas off. Leave it in the hot boiling water to poach for about an hour. You'll end up with super tender and perfectly cooked, juicy chicken breast.

Slice the chicken breast up and add them to the pot with the mushrooms and sauce; DONE!

Serve it up with some pasta of your liking. I chose spaghetti as it's a favorite option for most locals here.

This was for a catering so that wanted sides of potato wedges with each portion. Absolutely delicious!

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