Hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to Chinese comfort food classics with a shot at the aptly named "san bei ji" or literally, three cup chicken. For those unfamiliar, san bei ji features a braised piece of chicken thigh that's been slow cooked in (by definition) one cup each of three different sauces, to make up its braise. Although the dish does in fact originate from Chinese cuisine, three cup chicken is actually best known as a popular Taiwanese dish, wherein the simplicity of the braising sauce colloquially makes it a very simple "dump" recipe, or in other words, throw a bunch of stuff into a wok, and a meal will suddenly appear.
On further research, I've actually found that this dish is a TINY bit more complicated than its name implies. To my taste most notably, this dish must include the iconic aromatic heat that comes from the dried "Tian Jin" pepper, which absolutely comes alive in a slow braise like this one. I've also personally found that the braise comes alive just a tiny bit more when we add just. one or two more ingredients to our sauce, though I know this does cause its naming convention to fall apart. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
3 green onions (or 1 bunch Thai Basil)
3 medium chicken thighs
4-5 Tian Jin peppers
peanut oil
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce (or 1 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup shaoxing wine
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
PREP
CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside
MINCE the ginger, set aside
SEPARATE the whites and greens of the green onions, then slice the whites thinly, and the greens into planks
LARGE DICE the chicken thigh into 1/2 inch pieces, set aside
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a wok over medium heat, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the chicken to the wok, spread evenly across the wok surface and sear for 2 minutes undisturbed
TOSS with the wok tilted downward for wok hei, then remove the chicken
ADD an additional 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the garlic, ginger and whites of the green onions to the wok and saute for 15 seconds until fragrant
ADD the Tian Jin peppers and saute for an additional 30 seconds
ADD the chicken back to the wok, followed by the sauce mixture plus 1/2 cup of water
COVER and let simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, then remove the cover and reduce until a glaze forms
REMOVE from heat, add the greens of the green onions, then toss to combine