A Chinese-style ground chicken and rice bowl that is super easy to prepare and bursting with flavor. It is a cheat version of Taiwanese minced pork rice bowl (Lu Rou Fan), but much more practical to make for a weekday dinner. {Gluten-Free Adaptable}
Ground chicken bowl is a dish that I want to cook when I feel lazy but want something hearty and filling. The flavor of the dish is similar to Lu Rou Fan, or Taiwanese pork rice bowl. It uses ginger, garlic, soy sauce and Chinese five spice to create a savory sauce that goes great with rice and noodles. Instead of cut up pork belly, this recipe uses ground chicken. Not only is it much faster to make, it tastes great, and it’s a healthier version that I don’t feel guilty eating on a regular basis.
Ground chicken bowl ingredients
Dried shiitake mushrooms
Dried shiitake mushrooms are a must-have for a well equipped Chinese pantry. Different from fresh mushrooms, it has a smoky flavor and such a condensed umami that a small amount goes a long way. It stays good at room temperature for a long time. It’s a great item to have so you can kick up the flavor of your dishes in a pinch, when you don’t have a lot of fresh ingredients around.
If you do not have dried shiitake mushrooms at home, it’s possible to use fresh mushrooms such as regular white or brown mushrooms. I would use 1/2 lb (225 g) to replace the shiitake mushrooms. You can quarter or slice the mushrooms depending on their size. If using fresh mushrooms, you might need an extra splash of oil and to cook them a bit longer, so the mushrooms will sear properly.
Ground meat
I used ground chicken in this recipe. But feel free to use other types of ground meat, such as ground pork, ground beef or ground turkey. The flavor profile of the sauce works well with all of them.
Mise en place
When you’re ready to cook, your table should have:
- Mixed sauce
- Ground meat of your choice
- Rehydrated and chopped shiitake mushrooms
- Minced aromatics (ginger and garlic)
- Cornstarch slurry
- Sesame oil
Other ingredients you might need
You will need either steamed rice or boiled noodles to go with the chicken. To make the meal more satisfying and balanced, consider adding an egg and steamed vegetables on the side.
For the egg, fried eggs, marinated eggs or a regular hard boiled egg will all work well. My soy sauce eggs, easy marinated eggs, and tea eggs are great options.
For the vegetables, I prefer Chinese greens such as choy sum, Chinese broccoli (gai lan), or baby bok choy. But other vegetables such as steamed broccoli, cauliflower and / or carrot work great as well.
How to make the Chinese ground chicken bowl
Making a ground chicken bowl is super easy.
- Saute the aromatics
- Brown the ground chicken
- Cook the mushrooms
- Add the sauce and braise briefly so the chicken soaks up the flavor
- Add the cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce
- Assemble the bowl with toppings of your choice
TIPS
If you do not want to make a veggie side, you can throw some vegetables into the skillet and let them cook with the ground chicken. For example, frozen green peas and spinach are great options.
How to serve ground chicken bowl
The ground chicken topping works well with both steamed rice and boiled noodles. Here are some of my favorite ways to serve it:
- Ground chicken and rice bowl with marinated eggs and steamed veggies
- Ground chicken and rice bowl, watercress stir fry, and egg drop soup for a full meal
- Ground chicken served over noodles, drizzled with chili oil, and sliced cucumber for a refreshing summer dish
- Ground chicken noodle soup bowl using this recipe for the soup base (skip the chicken bouillon powder and season to taste)
The ground chicken bowl is also a great dish for meal prep and lunch boxes. It freezes well and can be prepared in bigger quantities as well.
Other easy dinner recipes
- Crispy Sesame Chicken (without Deep Frying)
- Shrimp and Asparagus Stir Fry
- Easy Beef Fried Rice (牛肉炒饭)
- Beef and Celery Stir Fry
- Chinese Curry Chicken
Chinese Ground Chicken Bowl
Ingredients
- 8 (20 g) dried shiitake mushroom
Sauce (*Footnote 1)
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
Cooking
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 1/2 thumb ginger , minced
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 lb (450 g) ground chicken (or ground pork or ground beef)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Serving options
- Steamed rice (or noodles)
- Sliced green onion (for garnish)
- Fried eggs (or marinated eggs)
- Steamed vegetables
Instructions
- Add shiitake mushrooms to a medium-sized bowl and hot water to cover. Let rehydrate until tender throughout, 15 minutes or so. Drain and rinse with running tap water to remove any debris. Squeeze out excess water. Remove and discard the tough stem, and mince the mushrooms.
- In a small bowl, combine chicken broth, light soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, dark soy sauce, sugar, five spice powder and salt. Mix well and set aside.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add ginger and garlic. Stir a few times until fragrant.
- Add ground chicken. Spread out the chicken and let sear without moving for 2 minutes or so. Then stir and chop the ground meat into small pieces. Stir and cook until the chicken is cooked through.
- Add minced shiitake mushrooms to the skillet. Stir and cook for 1 minute.
- Pour in the mixed sauce from step 1 and mix well. Simmer until the sauce is mostly absorbed, 5 minutes or so.
- Mix the cornstarch and water in a small bowl and stir to dissolve completely. Pour into the pan. Stir immediately to thicken the sauce.
- Drizzle with sesame oil. Taste the chicken and adjust seasoning by adding a pinch of salt if needed.
- Serve warm over steamed rice or noodles, with steamed vegetables and an egg, if using. Garnish with green onions. Serve as a main dish.
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! 😉
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? 😉
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 🙂 It’s very easy to make and low in calories. I won’t feel guilty at all if I eat a lot for dinner 😉
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 🙂
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 🙂 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! 🙂
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. 🙂 🙂
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 🙂
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 🙂
So delicious!
I prepared this for use in spring rolls, and it was SO delicious it didn’t make it into the spring rolls! Guess I’ll 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 🙂
I made this as is written and served with rice and greens. Unfortunately I found it extremely plain and lacking flavour. I am not sure if possibly I didn’t reduce the sauce enough but I was a bit wary of overcooking the chicken mince. I would possibly try again but maybe double the sauce and reduce separately before adding to the chicken.