Ginger Chicken is a homestyle Chinese dish made with lots of fresh ginger, garlic and scallions, cooked down into a sticky brown sauce great over rice or noodles.
I first heard of Ginger Chicken at a Chinese restaurant in Rochester, NY, where I waited tables. In the kitchen, the Cantonese chefs referred to this Ginger Chicken as “Old Ginger Chicken” or “lo gyong gai” in Cantonese (???, “lao jiang ji” in Mandarin).
I loved talking with the chefs when the kitchen wasn’t too busy, and I learned why it’s called “Old Ginger Chicken.” It’s because literally “old,” or mature ginger should be used!
Mature ginger packs a more concentrated spicy ginger flavor than young ginger. Young ginger is vaguely pink in color, with slightly transparent skin. It has a more mildly spicy and almost floral flavor.
The ginger you can get in most U.S. stores is mature ginger, so you can easily get what you need to make this dish! I’ve rarely seen young ginger even in Asian grocery stores, and it’s only available a couple months out of the year when it’s in season (mid-September to early November), if at all.
When I first tried a plate of the chefs’ Chinese Ginger Chicken, it had the strong, tasty flavor that comes from the classic trio of fresh aromatics most often used in Cantonese cooking: ginger, garlic, and scallion.
While ginger is the star of the dish, I thought it also tasted a lot like the Oyster Sauce Chicken my mom would make. Something about that sticky sauce! My mom’s chicken was almost always on the bone, but this recipe makes things a little easier with boneless chicken thighs.
If you think you don’t like ginger, just wait a few years—as I got older, my taste for ginger has grown and I started craving dishes like this Ginger Chicken! For more information on ginger and how it is used in Chinese cooking, see our Chinese ingredients glossary entry on fresh ginger.
