Chicken in Soy Sauce with Peanuts

Preparing the ingredients

1. Gongbao is a classic of Sichuan cuisine. Chicken in small pieces, so that it can be eaten with chopsticks, peanuts fried in oil, and small chili pods. It is a slightly spicy dish with a pronounced flavor. The invention of the dish is attributed to a Qing dynasty official, Ding Baozhen. The dish has changed several times and been adjusted along the way. No one knows anymore what the original was. You can find gongbao with mushrooms or carrots, and some add leeks and so on. The origin of the word gongbao is interesting: literally, it means “the one who raises the heir to the throne.” The dish “chicken in soy sauce with peanuts” is usually called that with the addition “… gongbao style.”

   We will definitely make gongbao by the classic recipe, but today we decided on a simplified version that is easy to repeat here: Chinese-style chicken. Looking ahead, I’ll say that the taste of this dish is comparable to a glass of ice-cold fresh beer drunk in one go at a bar counter in 40-degree heat. The first piece melted in my mouth instantly…

   Important! All the ingredients for the dish should be cut into pieces of the same size, so that in theory they could be eaten with chopsticks. But that is not even the main point. What matters is that all the pieces fry properly and at the same time. The way you cut and fry is one of the two cornerstones, just as it is for chicken chakhokhbili.

   So, without hurry, let’s calmly cook Chinese-style chicken.

2. Prepare and cut the vegetables before you start cooking. Cut them and put them into separate small bowls so that everything is at hand by the time you start frying.

   

   Remove the seeds and stem from the bell pepper, red or green, and cut it into squares. The pieces should be about the size of a 5-kopeck coin, that is, 2.5-3 cm. If you like, you can take more bell pepper. If you don’t like very hot food, leave the hot pepper whole. It will give its aroma and a light flavor as it fries, plus a very pleasant heat, and the dish will taste excellent. Besides, if you want, you can eat the hot pepper separately after frying.

   

   Peel and cut the onion. Strictly speaking, leeks are better. But if they’re out of season, don’t despair. Regular onion will do just fine. Cut the onion into rings or thick strips.

   

   Finely chop the green onion stalks. Set aside 1 tsp of the chopped green onion for sprinkling over the finished dish. The rest will be fried.

   

3. Prepare the chicken. Remove the skin and any large pieces of fat. Scrape the inside cavity thoroughly to remove any remaining innards. Take all the meat off the chicken, trying to remove all the large bones. Cut the chicken meat into small pieces. Keep in mind that chicken shrinks as it fries, so don’t cut it too small. It’s fine if some small bones remain in the meat; chicken is often served with all its bones.

   

Frying

1. If you have a wok, great. But a deep saute pan will do the frying very well. I admit I was too lazy to get out the wok and made do with a saute pan. In China they usually use sesame, peanut or corn oil. Olive oil is not cheap there. By the way, corn oil is sold here and it is very healthy. So, let’s go.

   Attention! Everything is done over high heat, much higher than medium. We switch to medium heat only at the end, when we bring the peppers to softness.

2. Fry the peanuts. Pour vegetable oil into the pan. You need half a cup of oil so that everything fries well. This is the first and most important moment, the foundation of the dish: the oil must be infused with peanut flavor. The ideal option is peanuts with paprika. They are lightly coated in hot red pepper, with a distinctive, pronounced spicy taste, and are just slightly salty. You can use raw peanuts and add a pinch of hot red pepper before frying. As soon as the oil is hot and starts to crackle, add the peanuts and fry for 1-1.5 minutes, stirring constantly. As soon as the peanuts smell strongly, very quickly scoop them out of the oil into a bowl and set aside. Never let them burn!!!

   

3. Fry the chicken right away in the same oil. Add the chicken pieces to the oil and fry without covering with a lid. The meat will release liquid at once, which evaporates quickly. The chicken should fry, not stew.

   

4. As soon as the chicken starts to brown, add the hot pepper and the chopped bell pepper. Keep frying everything, stirring.

   

5. After 10 minutes, add the chopped onion and garlic. The garlic should be either whole cloves or cut in half, but not minced. The garlic should only give the meat its aroma.

   

6. Keep frying, stirring. After 10 minutes, remove the garlic and discard it. Add the green onion and ground ginger. 1 tsp is enough. Or, if you have it, finely dice a 2-3 cm piece of ginger root.

   

   A digression. In China, a blend called wuxiangmian is widely used. It is well known. Alongside curry, khmeli-suneli, adjika and herbes de Provence, wuxiangmian is what makes Chinese cooking special. It is also called “five-spice blend.” Usually it is cinnamon, star anise, dill, cloves and licorice for the sweet version, or ginger, cinnamon, hot pepper, cloves and star anise for the hot version. The chicken is cooked with such a blend. You can add the hot version to taste. But be careful, this blend is very aromatic, even too much so.

7. Reduce the heat to medium and keep frying until the peppers are soft. This takes about 12-15 minutes.

Sauce

1. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Put 1 heaped tablespoon of flour (15 g) in a cup. In China they use starch. It is up to you here, it doesn’t matter much.

   

   Pour in 4-5 tbsp of good soy sauce. Add 2 tsp of brown sugar (9 g). Then add half a cup of warm, not hot, water. Stir everything and strain through a sieve.

   

2. When the chicken and peppers are fried, add the fried peanuts and pour in the prepared sauce. Stir. The chicken should be coated with sauce.

   

   The sauce thickens as it heats. Keep stirring the dish. By the way, chicken in soy sauce doesn’t stick to the pan at all, which surprised me. Let the sauce simmer for 5-7 mins over medium heat.

   

   Taste it. If you noticed, we didn’t salt the dish. It needs little salt, since soy sauce is salty. If you feel it needs more salt or more heat, it’s up to you. You can make Chinese-style chicken hotter by cutting a hot pepper pod in half.

Serving

1. Put the finished chicken with peanuts on a large platter or plate. Sprinkle with the remaining green onion. Chicken in soy sauce with peanuts is served hot. You can eat it with chopsticks, but from my own experience a fork is convenient too.