Moo goo gai pan

For the Simpsons episode, see Goo Goo Gai Pan.

Moo goo gai pan
Traditional Chinese	蘑菇雞片
Simplified Chinese	蘑菇鸡片
Literal meaning	"Mushroom chicken slices"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin mógū jīpiàn Wu Wugniu mu2 ku1 ci1 phie5 Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization mòhgū gāipin Jyutping mo4 gu1 gai1 pin3

Moo goo gai pan (Chinese: 蘑菇雞片; Jyutping: mo⁴ gu¹ gai¹ pin³) is the Americanized version of a Cantonese dish – chicken with mushroom in oyster sauce (香菇雞片), which can be a stir-fry dish or a dish made in a clay pot. The Chinese-American version is a simple stir-fried dish with thinly sliced chicken, white button mushrooms, and other vegetables. The word pan 片 means thin slices, referring to the way that the chicken is cut. Popular vegetable additions include bok choy, snow peas, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, water chestnuts, carrots, and/or Chinese cabbage (napa cabbage).

Etymology

The name comes from the Cantonese names of the ingredients (note that tone marks here do not match Mandarin tones):

• moo goo (蘑菇; mòhgū): 'button mushrooms'
• gai (雞; gāi): 'chicken'
• pan (片; pín): 'slices'

In popular culture

In the 1975 Thanksgiving episode of The Bob Newhart Show, titled "Over the River and Through the Woods", the characters repeatedly attempt to order moo goo gai pan while intoxicated.

The dish's name is parodied in the title of an episode of The Simpsons, "Goo Goo Gai Pan", in which Selma Bouvier travels to China to adopt a child.

See also

• List of chicken dishes