Chicken
Stir-fried chilli chicken with szechuan pepper
This hot and sharp chicken dish makes a good dinner with a pile of rice. Szechuan peppercorns or 'flower peppers' are not peppers at all, but berries from a shrub belonging to the citrus family. Their taste, which is sharp rather than hot, is best brought out by dry-frying them over a medium heat for a few minutes until slightly browned. Remove from the heat then grind with a pestle and mortar or a coffee grinder, then keep in an air tight container.
Cook's notes
Szechuan dishes are typically fragrant and spicy - this is no exception. Serve with boiled rice.
Ingredients
- 450g skinless chicken breast
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 tbsp dry sherry or rice wine
- 3 tbsp groundnut oil
- 225g mild green piquant peppers or chillies, sliced lengthways and seeds removed
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
- 1 tsp szechuan peppercorns, roasted and crushed
- 2 tsp brown sugar
Method
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Step 1
Cut the breast meat into thin slices and marinate in the light soy, sesame oil and sherry.
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Step 2
Heat a wok or frying pan, add the groundnut oil and fry off the chicken slices (reserving the marinade) for a minute or so then remove with a slotted spoon.
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Step 3
When hot again add the chillies, garlic and szechuan pepper to the oil and stir fry for a minute then add a splash of water, the soy, sherry marinade from the chicken, and sugar.
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Step 4
Cook for a further minute then return the chicken to the pan and heat through (if you sliced it as thin as you should it will be cooked through). Serve over boiled rice.
