Sichuan Chicken
A Sichuan chicken stir-fry: diced chicken tossed hot with Sichuan peppercorns, dried chillies, garlic and ginger.
Overview
This straightforward Sichuan preparation showcases the region's bold use of chillies and spices. The technique is simple: season, rest, and cook in layers, building flavour as you go. Oyster sauce adds depth, while seven spices (chilli power, Sichuan pepper, salt, garlic, ginger, pepper) create a full-bodied dish.
Serves: 4 Prep Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
Chicken & Seasonings
- 250 grams chicken fillets
- 2 cloves garlic (grated)
- 2 cm ginger
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp red chilli powder
Cooking & Sauce
- 1 tbsp oil
- 3 cloves garlic (roughly chopped)
- ½ red bell pepper (or green bell pepper)
- 5 dried chillies
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 4 tsp soy sauce
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp sugar
- 250 ml water
Method
Stage 1 - Season & Rest
- Sprinkle chicken fillets with grated garlic, ginger, salt and red chilli powder.
- Let the chicken rest for 30 minutes.
Stage 2 - Sauté Aromatics
- Heat oil in a wok or large pan.
- Sauté chopped garlic in oil until fragrant.
- Add bell pepper and dried chillies and sauté until wilted.
Stage 3 - Cook Chicken
- Add chicken and stir until it begins to brown.
Stage 4 - Build Sauce
- Add the oyster sauce, soy sauce, black pepper and sugar.
- Stir well.
- Pour in the water and cook until absorbed and chicken is done.
- Serve with boiled rice.
Notes
- Resting period: The 30-minute rest allows seasonings to penetrate the chicken and tenderize it.
- Aromatics layering: Building flavour in stages (garlic first, then peppers and chillies) creates more complex result than adding all at once.
- Dried chillies: Add texture and flavour. Adjust quantity based on heat preference.
Serving
Serve with: Steamed or boiled white rice to balance the spices
Storage
- Keeps 2-3 days refrigerated
- Freezes well up to 2-3 months
- Flavour develops after 24 hours
More like this
Spicy Chicken with Peanuts
This is a classic western Chinese dish better known in China as Gongbao chicken (or Kung Pao chicken). Named after Chinese official Ding Baozhen, Governor of Sichuan province in the nineteenth century, it represents the region's bold approach to flavour: spicy, slightly sour, sweet, and savoury all at once. The combination of roasted peanuts and dried chilli creates an unforgettable sauce.
Cantonese BBQ Chicken
This is summer-BBQ adaptation of the lacquered red roast meats that hang in the windows of Cantonese siu mei shops. The marinade borrows from char siu (hoisin, soy, Shaoxing wine, five-spice, fermented bean curd, garlic, ginger) but pulls back on the sugar slightly because chicken does not need as much sweetness as pork shoulder. Bone-in skin-on thighs are the right cut: they stay juicy on the grill, the skin renders down and crisps, and the bones give the meat shape. A two-stage glaze does the rest. The thighs cook over indirect heat first to render the fat and set the meat, then move directly over the coals for the last few minutes while a honey-maltose mixture is brushed on repeatedly. Every brush of glaze caramelises, blackens slightly at the edges, then gets brushed again. The result is sticky-shiny with a smell that is half five-spice, half woodsmoke. Difficulty is low if you control your heat. A two-zone fire (one side coals piled high, the other side empty) is the only real requirement; on a gas grill, two burners on full and one off does the same job. Serve sliced over plain rice with sliced cucumber and a spoon of chilli oil, or stuffed into bao with hoisin and spring onion.
General Tso’s Chicken
This iconic American-Chinese dish combines deep-fried chicken with a sweet, spicy, and slightly tangy sauce. General Tso's chicken exemplifies the bold flavours of outside China Chinese cooking, where heat from dried chillies, sweetness from sugar, and complexity from vinegar create a sauce that is bold yet balanced. Restaurant-quality results require proper oil temperature and crispy, well-coated chicken.
Guizhou Chili Chicken (Guizhou Lazi Ji)
Guizhou lazi ji is the southwest's answer to the Sichuan chongqing lazi ji, but with a fundamentally different character. Where Chongqing's version is a dry, fried, chilli-buried dish, Guizhou's is a wet braise built on ciba lajiao: rehydrated mild dried chillies pounded into a thick red paste with ginger and garlic, then slow-fried in oil until it deepens to a rich, almost jam-like base. The paste is the soul of the dish and the soul of Guizhou cooking more broadly: the province is the first in China where chilli was used as a condiment after its arrival from the Americas, and produces roughly a third of the country's chillies today. Difficulty for a home cook is moderate, the only finicky steps being the chilli soak and the slow-frying of the paste, rush it and the sauce stays harsh; do it right and the flavours bloom into something layered and fragrant. The result is best after an overnight rest, and even better the day after, served over plain rice with the orange chilli oil pooling around the edge. Regional variations across Guizhou tweak the proportions, sometimes adding fermented rice or douchi for extra savoury depth.