Name: Phoenix-Dragon Chicken (龍鳳鷄)
Yield: This party dish would serve 6 to 8 easily as a main course.
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 4 cups oil; ¾ cup water; 1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 3 tablespoons stock or water; 1 egg; 8 thin slices cooked Smithfield ham or boiled ham; ¾ cup chicken stock; 1 tablespoon light soy sauce; Sprinkling black pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon dry sherry; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 cup all-purpose flour; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 cups fresh bean sprouts; 1 tablespoon dried mo-er mushrooms (presoaked); 1 tablespoon sesame oil; ½ cup shredded bamboo shoots; 2 quarter -sized slices peeled ginger, minced; 1 medium clove garlic, lightly smashed and peeled; 4 large whole chicken breasts, skinned and boned

Preparation info

This party dish would serve
6 to 8
easily as a main course.

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Key to Chinese Cooking

By Irene Kuo

Published 1977

About

In Chinese mythology, the phoenix is a bird symbolic of feminine beauty, the dragon a symbol of male virility. When the delicate white meat of chicken breast, considered feminine, is coupled with hearty red ham, regarded as masculine, the dish is usually given, mostly by the Cantonese chefs, a fanciful name such as “Phoenix meeting Dragon in a lanterned court” to indicate that they have joined in harmony and bliss. I have simplified the name but not the bliss.

Ham indeed complements