Taiwanese Chicken Lu Rou Fan

How to make a super easy, ultra flavourful Chicken Lu Rou Fan, or Taiwanese braised chicken.

Taiwanese Lu Rou Fan is a braised meat dish that is homely and comforting. Even though it’s a typical homecooked dish, it’s also one of the more popular street food in Taiwan. Even though ‘lu rou fan’ refers to braised meat, it is typically made with pork belly, simmered in a dark soy sauce broth with lots of delicious spices. The longer it’s braised the better it tastes.

This recipe uses chicken, and I promise you, it tastes equally amazing! In fact, it has been one of my go-tos lately. The braised meat and addictive sauce with some white rice… favourite.

What Chicken to Use for Lu Rou Fan?

The best chicken to use would be boneless chicken thighs or legs, with skin and fat attached. These also hold well in braised dishes.

That said, I actually prefer a combination of lean and fatty chicken meat. It’s a lot less heavy. I would not recommend doing lean chicken for the whole dish though, the chicken fat is crucial for flavour!

Dried Shiitake Mushrooms

Dried shiitake mushrooms are a standard Chinese ingredient. When you first get it, it’s hard and tough, and not edible at all. To use it, it will have to be rehydrated. Organised people will be able to soak this overnight in water, but the unorganised like me would just add boiling water to it and it will be ready in 30 minutes. Once it’s soft and spongy it’s ready for use.

Can you use regular mushrooms? Yes! In fact, it’s my go-to. It may not taste as strong as dried mushrooms, but the flavour will still be present. Of course, you can’t get much tasty mushroom water, but the dish still tastes good.

Key Ingredient: Fried Shallots

The ingredient that levels up Lu Rou Fan over other braised meat dishes is the use of fried shallots! Do not skip this ingredient. You can make yours from scratch, but I went the easy route of using store bought.

You would notice that I used regular raw onions as well – most recipes will not add the onions but I like the extra sweetness it adds to the dish. And no! The dish definitely did not taste too “onion-y”.

Spices for Chicken Lu Rou Fan

This dish reminds me of the Malay dish, Ayam Masak Kicap, or Spicy Dark Soy Sauce Chicken. Might be why I’m so drawn to the dish.

This uses a similar combo of spices as the Ayam Masak Kicap.

The ingredients used here are:

• Cinnamon Stick
• Star Anise
• Bay Leaves
• Chinese Five Spice Powder: a powdered combination of spices usually used in Chinese dishes such as cinnamon, star anise, cloves, cardamom, fennel, though it varies by brand.

The only spices I did not add are cloves and cardamom, but that’s because they’re small and will get lost easily in the dish. It’s not too pleasant to bite into these! You can use them if you’d like, simply bundle it in a spice bag or cheese cloth so you can fish it out easily after.

More recipes like this:

If you love this recipe, you might like these too:

• Chicken Kong Bak Bao | braised chicken baos
• Ayam Masak Kicap | spicy dark soy sauce chicken
• Three Cup Chicken | the Taiwanese stir fry with a secret ingredient!

Taiwanese Chicken Lu Rou Fan

Recipe by Sha

5.0 from 2 votes

Course: Recipes

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Ingredients

• 400g Boneless Chicken Thighs, diced

• Marinated with 1 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce

• 1 tbsp Cooking Oil

• 1 cup Soaking Water of Dried Mushrooms

• 3 tbsps Light Soy Sauce

• 1 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce (or Kicap Manis)

• 40g or 1 small onion or a couple of shallots, diced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tsp ginger, minced

• 1 tsp Chinese Five Spice Powder

• 1 Cinnamon Stick

• 2-3 Star Anise

• 1/2 cup Fried Shallots

• 20g or 5-6 Dried Shiitake Mushrooms, rehydrated and diced

• 1 tbsp Rock Sugar (or regular sugar)

• 1/2 tsp Ground White Pepper

• 2 cups Water, adjust as needed

• 2-3 Bay Leaves (optional)

• Additional Toppings:

• 4 hardboiled eggs, peeled

• 1 block Firm Tofu or Tau Kwa

• Blanched Bok Choy

Directions

• Prep
• Wash dried mushrooms and pour boiling hot water over it. Allow to rehydrate for about 30 minutes. It’s ready once it’s spongy and soft. Squeeze out the water and dice the mushrooms. Make sure to keep about 1 cup of the mushroom soaking liquid.
• Dice chicken meat into smaller pieces, and add dark soy sauce. Stir to combine and allow to marinate for 30 minutes or so, or the same time as the dried mushrooms.
• Braising the ‘Lu Rou’
• Add oil to a pot and allow to heat up over medium to high heat. Once hot, add the marinated chicken. Saute and allow the chicken to sear, it does not have to cook through.
• Once the chicken sears, it’s ok if there’s a slight char ever, add the mushroom soaking water, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, onions, garlic, ginger, five spice powder, cinnamon stick and star anise. Stir to combine. With your spatula, lightly scrape the bottom of the pot to combine any chicken bits stuck at the bottom with the sauce.
• Add rock sugar next, and stir through until the sugar melts. Then add the the diced mushrooms, fried shallots, a pinch of white pepper and stir to combine.
• Add water next, and add just enough to fully submerge the chicken pieces. Then add boiled eggs, firm tofu, and bay leaves.
• Let the pot come to a boil, before lowering down the heat to the lowest so it simmers. Let this simmer for 30-40 minutes. Occasionally return to the pot to stir so the bottom does not burn.
• At the 30-40 minute mark, the chicken should be fully cooked. The eggs and tofu should also develop a darker colour.
• Turn the heat up to the highest, and allow the sauce to boil. This will help to thicken the sauce. Stir continuously so it does not burn. It will not take long before the sauce thickens at all, about 5 minutes. Once the sauce thickens, turn off the heat and lu rou fan is ready!
• Ladle the braised chicken and the sauce over white rice and serve with the boiled eggs, tofu and some blanched vegetables. Done!

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