Hunan Chicken

Chicken braised briefly with pickled red chillies and finished with vinegar off the heat.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

• 800 g chicken thighs and drumsticks, chopped through the bone
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 6 pickled red chillies, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh red chilli, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon ginger, sliced
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• 250 ml hot water
• 1 tablespoon black vinegar
• 2 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. Brown the chicken pieces in the oil over a high heat, 6 minutes, until coloured all over. Chopped through the bone they give up more flavour than boneless pieces and take about the same time.
2. Add the pickled and fresh chillies, garlic and ginger, and stir for a minute. The pickled ones bring the sourness and the fresh ones the heat — they are not interchangeable.
3. Add the soy sauce, wine and hot water, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook 20 minutes.
4. Uncover and reduce for 5 minutes until the sauce just coats the chicken.
5. Take the pan off the heat before adding the vinegar. Boiled vinegar goes flat and dull; added off the heat it stays sharp, which is the whole reason it is here.
6. Scatter the spring onions over and serve.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes