Passport & Plate - Real Deal, Sichuan-Style Kung Pao Chicken
China | Tuesday, February 24, 2015 | 4 photos
Ingredients
Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breast
3 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp fresh ginger, about the size of your palm
5 scallions, white parts only, no greens
2 tbsp peanut oil
a generous handful of dried red chiles (at least 10), preferably Sichuan peppercorns if you can find them or order online
1 teaspoon whole Sichuan pepper
2/3 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
For the marinade:
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon Shaoxing rice wine or medium-dry sherry
1 1/2 teaspoons potato flour or 2 1/4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
For the sauce:
3 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon potato flour or 1 1/8 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
3 teaspoons Chinkiang or black Chinese vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon chicken stock
How to prepare this recipeMethod:
1. In a small bowl, mix the marinade ingredients together and set aside. Cut the deboned chicken into small cubes, as evenly sized as possible. Add the chicken cubes to the small bowl with the marinade and toss to coat evenly.
2. Peel and thinly slice the garlic and ginger, and chop the scallions. Wearing rubber gloves, snip the chiles in half or into 2-inch sections. Discard as many seeds as possible. (Warning: these chillies are hot and can really hurt if they get in your eyes. I've done this taking out my contacts and it smarts! Trust me, you want the gloves.)
3. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Take a taste test with your finger, then sit aside where it'll be easily accessible from your wok. (It's a universal truth that all good chefs taste as they cook.)
4. Add 2 tablespoons of oil to a wok and heat over a high flame. When the oil is hot but not yet smoking, add the chiles and Sichuan pepper and stir-fry briefly until they are crisp and the oil is spicy and fragrant. Make sure not to burn the spices, as this creates a not-so-tasty astringent effect. You can remove the wok from the heat if necessary to prevent overheating. This will happen quickly, since wok cooking is fast and hot.
5. Quickly add the chicken and fry over a high flame, stirring constantly. (If you like to do the fancy sautee flip with the flick of your wrist, that works too.) As soon as the chicken cubes have separated, add the ginger, garlic, and scallions and continue to stir-fry for a few minutes until they are fragrant and the meat is cooked through. You'll want to cut open one of the larger pieces of chicken to make sure it's cooked. Raw chicken is no bueno.
6. Give the sauce a stir and add it to the wok, continuing to stir and toss. As soon as the sauce has become thick and shiny, add the peanuts, stir them in, and serve hot with a side of steamed rice.
The story behind this recipeThere was a time when Chinese cooking was thought of as MSG-laden take-out, meant for lazy nights in, snuggled up in sweatpants. But recently, regional cooking from the one of the world's oldest and now most populous civilizations has been making its way into chef's kitchens, with food from the fiery, seductive Sichuan Province taking center stage.
My fixation with visiting the Sichuan Province started when I noticed that celebrated chefs like Danny Bowien of the renowned Mission Chinese in San Francisco and James Trees at the Hutchinson in Los Angeles were using the a variety of the region’s ingredients in their high end kitchens. To boot, I noticed a bevy of hole-in-the-wall restaurants like Chengdu Taste and Sichuan Impressions in L.A.’s San Gabriel Valley gaining national attention. Considering the SGV has the largest population of Chinese residents outside China, I knew I was onto something.
So I sought out to explore the Sichuan Province and its most popular ingredient: the Sichuan peppercorn.
This singular spice is the highlight of the province’s cooking, creating sensations known as “la” or spicy and “ma” or numbing, creating a ridiculously addictive bite that keeps you coming back for more. The Sichuan peppercorn is found in a variety of local dishes, including Sichuan hot pot, tea smoked duck. map tofu, twice cooked pork, and kung pao chicken.
It took me by surprise that the latter was actually something created in China, and not a something crafted to suit Western palates in the States. In fact, it was actually named after a Sichuan governor. So I went to the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine, regarded as one of the top culinary schools in China, in search of how to make the dish from scratch.
British-born cookbook author Fuchsia Dunlop attended the school as well, and I've adapted the recipe from her time at Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine here. No surprise, the key ingredient is Sichuan's famous peppercorns. Here's how it's done:
