moo goo gai pan

[ moo goo gahy pan ]

noun

, Cantonese Cooking.

1. a dish of sliced chicken stir-fried with button mushrooms and, often, assorted vegetables.

Word History and Origins

Origin of moo goo gai pan¹

From dialectal Chinese; compare Chinese mógu Mongolian-type mushroom (probably from Mongolian; compare Dagur (Mongolian language of northwestern Manchuria) muugee “mushroom”), jī “chicken” ( Guangdong dialect gāi ), piān “slice(s)”