Three
Cup Chicken三杯雞 (san-1 bei-1 ji-1)
A classic Taiwanese dish that is simply pungent. The three cups refer
to one each of sesame oil, rice wine, and soy sauce.
Serves 5–6
Ingredients
1 kg (2.2 Ib) chicken, chopped into bite-size chunks
2 tablespoons vegetable
oil
10 cloves garlic, crushed
10 slices ginger
1 cup sesame oil
1 cup Taiwan rice wine
1 cup soy sauce
A few stalks fresh oriental basil
2 chilli peppers, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
Method
In a clay pot or casserole dish, brown chicken in vegetable
oil.
Add garlic and ginger and fry for a couple of minutes.
Mix sesame oil, rice wine, soy sauce, chillies and sugar,
add to pot. Bring to a boil.
Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Place basil on top of
chicken, cook for a further 5 minutes.
Remove chicken, minus liquid, to a serving dish. Serve
with white rice.
Notes: Don't be tempted to skimp on seasonings – this dish
is meant to pack a punch. And don't simmer much longer than
20 minutes or the chicken will start to resemble salty hunks
of leather.
Chinese rarely sit down to a lunch or dinner that does
not include soup (in the case of noodle soup, soup is the meal). Unlike
the Western custom of having soup before the main course, Chinese prefer
to eat soup during or towards the end of a meal… read
more
