Ground chicken bowl is a dish that I want to cook when I feel lazy. The prep only requires 5 minutes, then you could leaveĀ it to braise and the chicken sauce will be ready in 30 minutes. The sauce is flavorful and goes great with rice, noodles or blanched vegetables.
Chinese ground chicken bowl is a healthier version of Taiwanese minced pork rice. It uses ginger, garlic, soy sauce and Chinese five spice to create a savory sauce, that goes great with rice and noodles.
The recipe was inspired by the Japanese version of ground chicken bowl, which I discovered when I was working in a ramen restaurant while I was living in Japan. They have a side dish called steamed rice with ground chicken. It uses a sweet savory ground chicken sauce atop rice and is super delicious.
The cooking method is extremely easy. The prep can be done in 5 minutes, and after a simple stir-fry, you can leave the skillet to simmer without bothering it at all.
You can assemble the bowl however you like. The idea is similar toĀ dan dan noodles. The chicken sauce itself is a bit saltier if eating alone, so you can use the sauce as a condiment to accompany anything that is lighter in flavor. For example, top the rice bowl or noodle salad with boiled broccoli, blanched bok choy, steamed cauliflower, or any other healthy ingredient you could think of.
The use of the sauce is extremely versatile. It can be used in stir-fried rice or vegetables, served with an omelet for breakfast, or packed into your lunch box. By only adding a spoonful of the sauce, a bowl of rice and plain vegetables will become so yummy and appetizing that you can devour it within minutes!
Another great (and lazy) way is to add the chicken sauce to noodle soup. You could boil the noodles and some green vegetables in the same pot. After the noodles and veggies are cooked through, transfer them with some soup into a big bowl, topped with several spoons of the ground chicken sauce. You will be amazed how flavorful the soup will become.
Compared to the pork version, the chicken sauce is low in calories, contains more protein and less saturated fat. The rice bowlĀ is low in sugar, very high in iron and vitamin B.
Every time I cook this ground chicken sauce, I always make a lot. The recipe is very easy to double or triple with a bigger size dutch oven or pot. I separate the finished sauce into small batches and store them in the freezer. Every time Iām feeling lazy or my fridge is empty, I can use the noodle soup method. It only take a few minutes, and I will get a warm, satisfying and healthy bowl of goodies.
Hope youāll like this dish and happy cooking!
Chinese Ground Chicken Bowl
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine (or Japanese sake)
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon ginger , minced
- 2 teaspoons garlic , minced
- 300 grams (10 ounces) ground chicken breast
- 150 grams (5 ounces) mushroom, chopped
- steamed rice (or noodles)
- steamed or boiled vegetablesĀ fried egg
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add light soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, five spice powder and salt. Mix well and set aside.
- Heat a nonstick skillet on medium heat and add oil. When oil is warm, add ginger and garlic, stir a few times until fragrant. Add ground chicken and use a spatula to chop and separate the ground meat into small pieces. Stir until the surface of the chicken is slightly browned (it is ok if the inside is still pink).
- Add shiitake mushroom to skillet, stir for about 1 minute, until mushrooms turn soft.
- Pour in the mixed sauce from step 1, add 1 cup of water, and mix well. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, until sauce is mostly absorbed.
- Serve warm over steamed rice or noodles, with steamed vegetables and a fried egg.
- You can store the ground chicken in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 days, or in the freezer up to 2 weeks.
Gorgeous pictures like always! This dish looks soooo delicious! Ground chicken is definitely much healthier than ground pork. And that runny egg yolk… My husband will scream for that! I am looking forwards to trying it this week! Thank you very much for the link back! š
Thanks Lokness! Yeah, I use ground chicken to replace ground pork sometimes, because it’s low in calories and contains less fat. If you like mapo tofu, could also try to make it with ground chicken. It’s super delicious!
The runny egg yolk just makes every dish taste better, isn’t it? š
Happy cooking and let me know how it goes!
Wow what a good looking plate of food! Nice to see it’s easy to make too
Thanks Mariana! I think the fried egg makes the dish looks fancier and tastier š It’s very easy to make and low in calories. I won’t feel guilty at all if I eat a lot for dinner š
Totally loving the look of these chicken bowls.. a great weeknight meal that I have to recreate. Thanks for the idea Maggie!
Thanks Thalia! Yeah, this one is so easy to make on a weeknight and I pack the leftover for my lunchbox.
Have a great day ahead š
I’m pinning to try this soon! When I first looked at it, I thought of the Taiwanese rice dish, too! Very tasty but heavy and usually quite greasy so this lightened up version sounds great for home. Plus, I am a huge fan of anything with a fried egg on top. This looks perfect!
Hi Monica, thanks for stopping by and commenting! Yeah, this dish is inspired by the Taiwanese pork rice dish. I like this lighter version and won’t feel guilty even I eat a lot š Happy cooking!
I love ground chicken, but did not have a lot of recipes for it. This one is very simple and it doesn’t take very long time. Your site is very helpful for me since I get a lot of inspiration for Asian dishes here. The pictures are amazing!
Hi Mira, thanks for stopping by my site and I’m so glad you found my recipes helpful! Yes, this dish is very simple and easy to cook for a week day dinner. I also pack the leftover for lunch box the next day. It’s really convenient! š
I am so making this next week! This is a great quick dinner the family will love. We love Asian food here but due to food allergies we don’t get to eat out much. This recipe will be going into the meal plan. Also, do you have a favorite brand of Chinese five spice? The few varieties I have tried taste very different from each other.
This looks so good Maggie! I love how you write out the post with such clear instructions. I think I might be inspired by your cooking and your writing style today. š š
This has become a regular in our rotation at home. Thanks for this!
You’re the most welcome Darcey! I’m glad to hear you like the recipe!
I am not able to see steps 3, 5 and 7!!
Hi Tammi, sorry about the confusion. I inserted the pictures in a wrong way so the step numbers showed up strangely. I just fixed it and now you can view the recipe without problem.
Happy cooking!
Hi Maggie,
I just made this recipe last night and it was totally delicious. My family loved it. Is there anyway to cut back considerably on the sodium without losing the awesome flavor? Unlike my family I am eating a low sodium diet but I would like to make this recipe more often since its so easy and quick. Thank you!
Hi Xavier, I’m happy to hear you like the dish! It is so simple isn’t it?
To answer your question, you can try two things to cut sodium.
(1) Use homemade stock instead of water. I prefer homemade chicken stock, because they are more flavorful and contains less sodium. Sometimes I also use vegetable stock or even the water I use to cook beans. If you’re using a stock, you won’t need to add so much salt to enhance flavor.
(2) Cook some tofu with the chicken and serve them without rice. I make the dish a bit salty intentionally because you need to balance the flavor with the white rice. On the other hand, if you braise some tofu together with the chicken, they will soak a lot of broth and become flavorful. So you don’t need to season extra salt at the end. You might need to add a bit more stock or water in this case.
Hope this is helpful and Happy Cooking š
Made this tonight and it was delicious! Will definitely be making it again. The only thing was that the sauce did not absorbed as much as the picture showed. It wasn’t even close to that after 30 minutes. We were able to use it to drizzle over but it was strange that so much left.
First time on your site looking for some low fat meals with Chinese noodles. Your meals are easy and so healthy. Can’t wait to try them. Thanks!
As I write this, dinner recipe above is cooking on my stove and I’m pretty excited. It smells amazing. I used sesame oil instead of vegetable oil and I added chili pepper (I crave it) and green onion. I’m going to serve it over wide rice noodles and veggies and top with an egg. I just love that this recipe is both super flavorful and healthy! Ok, so I just tasted it and wow…wonderful balance of flavors. Better than local take out. I’m happy that I made a large portion, as the leftovers will be devoured. This will be a regular in my dinner line-up.
Thank you so much Maggie for sharing this recipe. I’m looking forward to trying more of your recipes.!
Delicious! Quick , easy and healthy weeknight dinner! It’s one if our family favourites now.
So happy to hear you like the dish! It’s one of our favorites too because it’s so simple to make š
So delicious!
I prepared this for use in spring rolls, and it was SO delicious it didnāt make it into the spring rolls! Guess Iāll have to double the recipe next time. Thank you for an authentic and flavorful recipe!
Delicious! I added slightly more Chinese 5 spice, did a tablespoon of mirin, rice vinegar, and wine instead of the straight rice wine, substituted zucchini for the mushrooms, and added a few hot chilis along with winter squash with the bok choy at the end. Extremely easy and very healthy. Thank you for the recipe!
I plan on making this tonight. Can I use low sodium chicken broth instead of water?
Yes of course! Happy cooking and hope you enjoy the dish š