Shandong Cuisine · FFET10200
Huangmenji (yellow braised chicken)
Chicken pieces braised with shiitake and green pepper in a soy-based sauce until it reduces, often served in a clay pot with rice.
A round white porcelain plate holds boneless chicken thigh pieces, potato, shiitake, ginger slices, garlic, scallion, dried chilies and green peppers in thick brown sauce, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
Represented by the cooking of Jinan and the Jiaodong coast, strong in quick-fire and braising methods, with stock-making as its hallmark.
Huangmenji is a dish of chicken pieces, usually thigh meat, braised with shiitake and green pepper in a soy sauce and reduced, often served in a clay pot with rice. It began in Jinan and is a Lu cuisine dish of Shandong. It may have originated at the Jinan restaurant Jilingyuan in 1927, while a 2025 report calls it the signature dish of the old Jinan restaurant Fuquanju in the 1930s; both accounts are second-hand, and this entry does not choose between them. In 2011, a descendant of the restaurant turned it into one-person fast food.
What
Huangmenji is chicken pieces, usually thigh, braised with dried shiitake and green pepper in a rich soy-based sauce and reduced, often served in a clay pot with rice.1,3,4
When
It may date from 1927 at the Jinan restaurant Jilingyuan, while a 2025 report calls it the signature dish of the old Jinan restaurant Fuquanju in the 1930s. No dated text was found here; both accounts are second-hand, and this entry does not choose between them. In 2011, a descendant of the restaurant turned it into fast food.1,2
Where
Huangmenji originated in Jinan as a Lu cuisine dish of Shandong and is now eaten across China.1,3,4
How
The chicken is marinated or blanched, browned in the pan (some versions use caramelized sugar, others hot oil), then simmered with soy sauce, cooking wine, shiitake and spices for about 20 to 30 minutes and reduced, with the green pepper added late. The traditional version uses a whole chicken.3,4
Why
In 2011, a descendant of the restaurant turned the dish into a one-person fast-food meal.2
Impact and influence
A chain built on the dish had about 3,293 stores in 2020 and more than 6,000 in 2021; these figures in a 2025 report came from the company. Some brands have more than 10,000 outlets.1,2
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
In restaurants and fast-food shops this dish is often braised to order in a clay pot. This is the simpler way I make it at home in one pot: chicken thighs are soaked and marinated, browned with caramelized sugar, then braised with soy sauce, cooking wine and shiitake, reduced, and finished with green pepper. The amounts of chicken, soy sauce, wine, oyster sauce, sugar and the two dried chilies, and the soaking and marinating times, follow one named recipe, and the number of dried shiitake and the soaking water follow a second recipe. That recipe comes from a recipe source that names no individual author and gives a fast-food-shop style with sweet bean paste and a starch slurry, which I do not use; it also says the traditional version uses a whole chicken. The scallion, ginger, garlic and green pepper amounts and the braising time are my own choices at home.
Ingredients
- Boneless chicken thighs about 800 g, cut into pieces about 3 cm across
- Potato 1, cut into chunks
- Dried shiitake 4, soaked until soft
- Shiitake soaking water 500 ml
- Cooking wine 5 tablespoons in all: 1 for the marinade, 4 for the braise
- Soy sauce 4 tablespoons in all: 1 for the marinade, 3 for the braise
- Oyster sauce 1 tablespoon
- Sugar 1 tablespoon, for the caramel color
- Ginger slices 4 slices
- Garlic 3 cloves, smashed
- Scallion sections 2 scallions
- Dried chilies 2
- Five-spice powder 1/4 teaspoon
- Black pepper a pinch
- Green peppers 2, cut into pieces
Steps
- Soak the chicken in cold water for about 10 minutes and drain it. Soak the dried shiitake in hot water until soft and keep the soaking water.
- Mix the chicken with 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of the wine and the ginger, and marinate for 30 minutes.
- Heat a little oil in the pot, add the sugar over low heat and let it melt slowly. As soon as it turns amber, add the chicken, taking care not to burn the sugar.
- Stir-fry until the surface of the chicken has changed color and taken on the caramel color.
- Add the garlic, scallion, dried chilies, five-spice powder, black pepper, the oyster sauce, the rest of the soy sauce and wine, the shiitake, the potato and 500 ml of the soaking water, and bring to a boil.
- Cover, turn the heat down low and braise for about 25 minutes, turning the pieces once or twice.
- Take off the lid, turn the heat up and reduce the sauce. When it is thick enough to cling to the chicken, add the green pepper and cook two minutes more.
- Cut into one of the bigger pieces of chicken: it must be cooked through with no pink and the juices clear. Spoon it over rice and eat hot.
Tips
- I add the green pepper late so it keeps a little crunch and color; this is my own habit.
- Keep the heat low when making the caramel color, and lift the pot off the heat as soon as the sugar smokes, because burnt sugar makes the whole pot bitter; that is my own experience.
Allergens: soy, wheat, shellfish