[feast_advanced_jump_to] Szechuan chicken, also known as Sichuan chicken, Mala Chicken or Laziji, is a beautifully spiced stir-fried chicken dish, usually served dry, rather than saucy, and characterised by the use of Szechuan peppercorns and lots of dried red chillies. Originating in Chongqing (in Southwest China) it’s a hugely popular dish. Often the chicken is deep-fried (I shallow-fry mine) and the amount of dried chillies in the dish tends to far outweigh the amount of chicken.I’m going a fair bit lighter on the chillies for my recipe. However, if you leave them whole, they don’t actually add too much heat anyway. It’s when they’re chopped and those chilli seeds are released that the heat level starts to increase!!For my recipe, I’m leaving most of the chillies whole and just chopping up a few of them.
📋 What do we need?
Full recipe with detailed and measurements at the end of this post.
For the Chicken & Marinade:
I recommend using chicken thighs for this recipe as they stay tender when you shallow fry them after marinating however you can replace with Chicken breast if you prefer.
For frying:
Chilli Bean Paste – known as toban djan or doubanjiang – if you can’t find this, you can replace with Gochujang (a Korean Chilli paste that’s little sweeter, but still good), or at a push, hoisin sauce mixed with a good pinch of chilli flakes. 👩🍳PRO TIP If you like it hot, chop up 5-10 of the dried chillies. If you want it a little milder, use fewer dried chillies and don’t chop them up. Serve over a big pile of fluffy boiled rice. Stay updated with new recipes!Subscribe to the newsletter to hear when I post a new recipe. I’m also on YouTube (new videos every week) and Instagram (behind-the-scenes stories & beautiful food photos).
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