Three Cup Chicken

Classic Taiwan Three-Cup Chicken Recipe

An authentic, delicious Taiwanese braised dish that you can make at home quickly with this easy-to-follow recipe. Three-cup chicken, though including lots of ginger and a couple of chillies, is more pungent than hot. The ‘three cups’ refer to one each of sesame oil, rice wine, and soy sauce, though at the quantity we are making here, we’ll use much less than that.

Serves 4

Ingredients
650 g (1.4 Ib) chicken, chopped into bite-size chunks
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
15–20 whole cloves garlic
15 slices ginger (thinly sliced lengthways)
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons Taiwan rice wine*
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 chilli peppers, roughly chopped 
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup of Thai basil leaves

Method

1. 1. 1. In a lidded clay pot or casserole dish, brown chicken in vegetable oil.
      2. Add garlic and ginger, mix in and fry for a few minutes.
      3. Mix sesame oil, rice wine, soy sauce, chillies and sugar, add to pot and mix in well. Bring to a boil.
      4. Reduce heat, cover and braise for 15–20 minutes on a low heat until the liquid has nearly evaporated. Place basil on top of chicken, cook for a further 5 minutes.
      5. Serve in the pot, and eat with white rice (feel free to eat garlic and ginger if you are so inclined).

Notes
*For the most authentic Taiwan flavour use Taiwan clear rice wine or a Chinese clear rice wine (米酒 mijiu) rather than Shaoxing. A decent substitute is cooking saki. Don’t be tempted to skimp on seasonings–this dish is meant to pack a punch. This recipe is as close as I can get to the version good restaurants in Taiwan serve.

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CHINESE NAME OF THIS DISH
三杯雞 (三杯鸡)
sān bēi jī

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