Little Lost Cook

41. China Part 2: Sichuan: Kung Pao Chicken

Posted on February 4, 2015 Updated on February 25, 2015

Sichuan is a province in the West of China, known for its spicy kitchen (chili heaven!), fertile land and off course giant panda’s. The landscape is very diverse, with Qinghai-Tibetan plateau in the West, Sichuan Basin in the middle (basically farm land), and Hilly Region in the East. Large mountains with turbulent rivers and deep valley’s crossing through.

Things you didn’t know about Sichuan

• It is also known as land of abundance since ancient times.
• The population is 90 million, which makes it the fourth most populated province in China. (90 million!!! That is like quadruple the people who live in the Netherlands, and that in 1 province!!!)
• Have I mentioned the GIGANTIC SIZE of the province you can compare it to 12x Switzerland!
• Wildlife to be found in Sichuan: Giant Panda’s, Sichuan Golden Monkey’s, Takin (I never heard of a Takin I actually had to google it!)

I love spicy food, the Sichuan pepper I only discovered a few year ago. It has a really distinctive taste, it sort of numbs your tongue or something it is really hard to explain. I think it tastes great though. Seriously go easy on the salt in this recipe!

Ingredients: 2 boneless chickbreasts cut into bite size pieces, 1/2 cup of skinless peanuts, 1 shallot, 6-10 dried chili peppers, 3 tablespoons of cooking oil, 1 teaspoon whole Sichuan peppercorns or Sichuan peppercorn powder, 

Marinade: 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, 1 tablespoon cooking wine

1. Pat the chicken meat with the back of your knife and then cut the chicken into cubes with similar size. Put in a large bowl; add all the marinating sauce; mix well and marinade for around 15 minutes.
2. Prepare a small bowl; add all the seasonings for the sauce together.
3. Heat up around 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in wok and add skinless peanuts in when the oil is still cold. Toss continuously until the oil becomes boiling and there is pa-pa sound. Remove the peanuts out and filter the oil.
4. Return the oil for frying peanuts back to the wok, heat up the oil until you can see waves on the surface. Slide the chicken in. Pan-fry until the color of chicken dices becomes white (no more stir frying in order to keep the tender taste). Transfer the chicken cubes out.
5. Fry shallot, pepper flakes and Sichuan peppercorn with slow fire until aroma. Return the fried chicken. Turn up the fire and swirl the sauce.
6. When the sauce is almost thickened, add deep-fried peanuts. Mix well, garnish chopped green onions and serve hot with steamed rice.