Chicken, lap cheong, snow peas, mushrooms and red onion stir-fried in a glossy oyster and soy sauce with garlic and ginger. Sometimes the best dinners start by looking at what needs using in the fridge. Tender chicken, sweet Chinese sausage, juicy mushrooms and crunchy greens came together in one glossy wok full of flavour. All I really needed to buy was one fresh ingredient.
Some dishes start with a recipe, then you go out and buy everything needed to make it. Others happen completely the opposite way around. You look inside the refrigerator, see several ingredients that need using, then figure out what you can make from them.
This Chicken, Lap Cheong and Snow Peas Stir-Fry belongs firmly in the second category.
Most of what went into this dish was already sitting around in my kitchen. I had chicken, lap cheong, mushrooms and red onion left over from other things I had cooked. The only ingredient I really needed to buy was the snow peas.
Once I had those, dinner practically decided itself.
I have always liked cooking this way. Throwing perfectly good ingredients away doesn’t make much sense when a little imagination can turn several leftovers into something completely different. Stir-fries are particularly good for this because they don’t demand rigid combinations of ingredients. You need a good balance of protein, vegetables, aromatics and sauce, but beyond that there is plenty of room to work with whatever you have.
This one turned out particularly well because the ingredients complemented one another almost naturally. The chicken was mild and tender, the lap cheong brought sweetness and richness, mushrooms soaked up the sauce, red onions added another layer of sweetness and the snow peas supplied the fresh crunch everything else needed.
Lap Cheong Changes the Whole Dish
The ingredient that gives this stir-fry its distinctive character is definitely the lap cheong.
Lap cheong is a type of Chinese dried sausage traditionally made with pork and pork fat, seasoned with sugar, salt and often Chinese rice wine or spirits. Its Cantonese name, laap coeng, broadly refers to a preserved or cured sausage.
Chinese sausages developed from the longstanding necessity of preserving meat before modern refrigeration. Salting, curing and drying pork allowed it to last considerably longer, while concentrating its flavour at the same time. Different styles developed around China, but the sweet dried pork sausage most of us recognise as lap cheong became particularly associated with Cantonese and southern Chinese cooking.
Today, of course, you will find it throughout Chinese communities around the world, including in Filipino kitchens.
Its sweet and savoury flavour is instantly recognisable.
I find it completely different from most Western sausages. You don’t need a huge amount because its flavour is concentrated, and once those slices hit a hot wok, some of their fat renders out and begins seasoning everything around them.
That is exactly what I wanted here.
Rather than treating the lap cheong as the primary protein, I use it almost as both an ingredient and a seasoning. Chicken provides most of the meat, while little slices of sausage appear throughout the dish, giving you occasional bursts of sweet, salty and fatty richness.
Snow Peas Were the Missing Ingredient
Looking at what I already had in the refrigerator, I knew this dish needed something green and crisp.
They were actually the only ingredient I specifically bought for this recipe. Everything else was essentially waiting to be used.
Snow peas work particularly well in stir-fries because they require very little cooking. You want them bright green and still crisp rather than soft, dull and wrinkled.
Their natural sweetness also works beautifully with lap cheong.
That contrast became one of my favourite things about the finished dish. You get tender chicken, slightly chewy pieces of Chinese sausage, juicy mushrooms and crisp snow peas all on the same plate.
The red onion sits somewhere between crisp and tender, bringing sweetness and a little sharpness that helps balance the richer ingredients.
A Stir-Fry Made for Clearing the Fridge
This is exactly why stir-frying is one of the cooking methods I return to whenever I have odds and ends sitting in the refrigerator.
It doesn’t matter that the ingredients weren’t originally purchased for the same meal.
A handful of mushrooms might not be enough for a mushroom dish. A couple of lap cheong might not seem worth doing anything special with. Some leftover chicken could easily become yet another ordinary chicken dinner.
Put everything together, however, and suddenly you have the foundations of something quite substantial.
Add snow peas and a simple Chinese-style sauce and everything begins to make sense.
This style of cooking also feels very familiar to me because everyday Asian home cooking isn’t always about following an exact restaurant recipe. Quite often it develops around what is available, what needs using and what tastes good together.
And there is nothing wrong with that.
In fact, some of the dishes you end up wanting to make again can start exactly this way.
Keeping the Chicken Tender
Chicken can easily become dry in a stir-fry, particularly if you use breast meat, so I like giving it a quick marinade first.
Soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil and cornflour make a noticeable difference.
The cornflour creates a very light coating around the meat, helping it retain moisture as it hits the hot wok. It also gives the sauce something to cling to later.
Chicken thighs work exceptionally well because they naturally remain juicy, but breast meat is perfectly fine as long as you slice it thinly and don’t overcook it.
The other important thing is having everything ready before the wok gets hot.
This isn’t the sort of cooking where you can casually start chopping your mushrooms while the chicken sits in the pan.
Once stir-frying starts, things move quickly.
Let the Mushrooms Soak Up the Flavour
The mushrooms might look like a supporting ingredient, but they contribute quite a lot.
After the lap cheong cooks, it leaves some of that sweet, savoury pork fat behind. The mushrooms go into the same wok and eventually absorb those flavours together with the oyster and soy-based sauce.
Their earthiness also works nicely against the sweetness of the sausage.
There is no need for anything particularly exotic here either. Ordinary button or brown mushrooms work perfectly.
I slice them reasonably thick so they don’t disappear completely during cooking.
The red onion gets similar treatment. Rather than finely chopping it, I cut it into wedges so it keeps some texture. I don’t want completely soft onions here. A little bite works beautifully against the tender chicken and mushrooms.
Keep Those Snow Peas Crisp
If there is one ingredient I really don’t want to overcook in this dish, it is the snow peas.
They go in last for a reason.
One or two minutes in a properly hot wok is usually enough. They only need to heat through and pick up some of the sauce while retaining their freshness and crunch.
That crispness is essential because almost everything else in the dish has a relatively soft texture.
They also completely change the appearance of the finished stir-fry. Without them, you would have mostly brown, beige and reddish ingredients. Throw those vibrant green pods into the wok and suddenly everything looks fresher.
But they aren’t there merely for colour.
That juicy crunch against the fatty lap cheong is one of the best combinations in the whole dish.
One Glossy Sauce Brings Everything Together
With so many flavours already coming from the ingredients, I kept the sauce fairly straightforward.
Oyster sauce provides the main savoury foundation, light soy sauce brings saltiness and dark soy adds a little colour and depth. Shaoxing wine gives it another aromatic layer while a small amount of sugar works particularly well with the lap cheong.
Chicken stock loosens everything, then cornflour gives the finished sauce that glossy consistency you want in a good stir-fry.
Once the chicken and lap cheong return to the wok, everything gets tossed through the sauce before those snow peas go in at the very end.
That’s basically dinner done.
A New Dinner from Ingredients That Were Already There
There is something particularly satisfying about making a dish like this because it feels as though you have created a completely new meal without really starting from scratch.
The chicken was leftover. The lap cheong was leftover. The mushrooms and onions needed using.
All I really had to buy were the snow peas.
And from that came a colourful plate of tender chicken, sweet Chinese sausage, juicy mushrooms, crunchy snow peas and red onions coated in a glossy savoury sauce.
It is also the sort of recipe you don’t need to follow religiously. If I had capsicum sitting around, I could throw that in. Broccoli would work. So would bok choy, gai lan or sugar snap peas. Shiitake mushrooms could easily replace the button mushrooms.
That flexibility is really the point.
This Chicken, Lap Cheong and Snow Peas Stir-Fry started as a way of using leftovers, but it turned into something I would happily make deliberately.
Sometimes all your refrigerator needs is one missing ingredient to turn yesterday’s odds and ends into tonight’s dinner.
Place the chicken in a bowl with the light soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, cornflour and white pepper. Mix thoroughly and leave to marinate for around 10 minutes while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
Combine all the stir-fry sauce ingredients in a small bowl, stirring until the cornflour completely dissolves. Set aside.
Heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat. Add a small amount of oil followed by the lap cheong.
Stir-fry the lap cheong briefly until the slices become glossy and begin releasing some of their fat. Remove from the wok and set aside.
Add the chicken in a single layer and allow it to sear briefly before stir-frying. Cook until lightly browned and almost cooked through, then remove and set aside with the lap cheong.
Add the remaining oil if required, followed by the garlic and ginger. Stir-fry for around 20 seconds until fragrant.
Add the mushrooms and stir-fry over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes until they begin to soften and develop some colour.
Add the red onion and continue stir-frying for another minute. Keep the onion slightly crisp rather than cooking it until completely soft.
Return the chicken and lap cheong to the wok and toss everything together.
Give the prepared sauce another stir, then pour it into the wok. Allow it to come to a boil while continuously tossing the ingredients until the sauce thickens slightly and coats everything.
Add the snow peas and stir-fry for only 1 to 2 minutes, until they become bright green and heat through while retaining their crunch.
Remove from the heat immediately and serve with freshly steamed rice.
Tonight you have my full attention. Living alone I have almost lived on stirfries much of the time and I absolutely love snow peas and mushrooms . . . would so love to reach into the screen and fill a big plate . . . We make our sauces and marinades in a pretty similar way . . . may I say ‘yum’ :) !
I agree with Jeff. This dish is beautiful, though I have had the sausages. It’s a rare occurrence where something like that doesn’t have garlic! This is definitely one to put on her list for stirfry nights. Thanks, Raymund.
I absolutely love snow peas in stir fries! I’ve never had that Chinese sausage, though, so you’ve certainly got me intrigued. This sounds like an excellent combination of flavors, Raymund!
Tonight you have my full attention. Living alone I have almost lived on stirfries much of the time and I absolutely love snow peas and mushrooms . . . would so love to reach into the screen and fill a big plate . . . We make our sauces and marinades in a pretty similar way . . . may I say ‘yum’ :) !
Hope you get some lap cheong from where you are
My mom makes something similar, but with prawns instead of chicken.
This dish looks beautiful! I’ve never had lap cheong. I’m eager to try it !
Its unlike any sausage
I agree with Jeff. This dish is beautiful, though I have had the sausages. It’s a rare occurrence where something like that doesn’t have garlic! This is definitely one to put on her list for stirfry nights. Thanks, Raymund.
Now that’s a winning combo. You have the perfect pairing of textures and flavors, balancing vegetables and protein in just the right ratio.
I absolutely love snow peas in stir fries! I’ve never had that Chinese sausage, though, so you’ve certainly got me intrigued. This sounds like an excellent combination of flavors, Raymund!