When it comes to Chinese cuisine, Peking duck, caramelized apples and all kinds of rice cooking methods immediately come to mind. But few people know that the real gem of this national cuisine is Sichuan chicken with fried cashew nuts, or gong-bao chicken. Ever heard of such a dish? Well, it's time to find out what real Chinese cuisine is.
Believe me, having prepared this non-trivial dish at least once, you will definitely make it a frequent guest of your home menu. In addition, your friends will enjoy this Asian culinary wonder.
Three whales of Sichuan cuisine
Sichuan province in the south-west has long been considered the birthplace of rich aromas of Chinese cuisine with its diverse and unusual tastes. They always ate well, because there was abundance around. This is not for you poor villages whose inhabitants have only rice and eggs in their diet, and the base is hot peppers, garlic and ginger.
It was there that a national dish was born - gong-bao ( Sichuan chicken ). This is a spicy chicken roast with the addition of cashew nuts or peanuts, vegetables, impossibly Sichuan pepper and chili pepper. This delicacy is not for weaklings - the level of its severity in reality is incredible. Plus, the meat is pickled in spices with the addition of Shaoxing wine - this is a special kind of rice drink.
We will need
Since we have not tasted hot peppers since infancy, and Shaoxing wine is not sold in every store, we offer a light version of Sichuan chicken cooking. For this we need:
- 400 grams of chicken breast.
- One red bell pepper.
- One green bell pepper.
- Ginger root (1.5 centimeters).
- Soy sauce.
- Two hundred grams of long grain rice.
- Canned green peas.
- Three cloves of garlic.
- Large onion.
- Roasted salted peanuts or cashews.
- Green onion feathers.
- Chili pepper and some hot pepper.
Notice - not a word about salt. In principle, soy sauce will be enough. But if this is not enough for you, then a couple of minutes before the readiness you can add salt to your liking.
Getting started cooking
Cut the chicken breast into large cubes. Pour the vegetable oil into the pan and add the finely chopped garlic with hot peppers and ginger. We give all this a sizzle, after which we pour in half a glass of soy sauce. Five minutes later, after the brew boils, we throw the poultry meat there. After a quarter of an hour, we use a slotted spoon to catch the chicken, and add the onion and chopped bell peppers into the boiling sauce. When the vegetables are scalded and saturated with all the flavors, we return the chicken to the container, cover it and simmer for another five minutes over low heat.
While the vegetables reached their condition, it was necessary to cook long-grain rice, after soaking it, so that after cooking it was crumbly, like pebbles. Add green peas to the cereal and mix - it turns out very beautifully. In general, that's all! Done!
On a large plate spread rice with peas, chicken and vegetables on top, then pour it over the sauce remaining in the pan. Finished serve is chopped nuts (peanuts or cashews) and green onions cut with slanting feathers.
A bit of authenticity
Those who want to achieve the maximum Sichuan taste of this dish should try. To begin with, as an oil for frying, you still need to use not ordinary vegetable, but garlic oil. Buying it, in principle, is not a problem. If you can find rice wine on the shelves, even if not Shaoxing, this is already a success. Before cooking, it is briefly soaked in chicken so that it takes its unusual taste. It’s not worth worrying that she will become “drunk” - all alcoholic vapors will disappear during cooking.
Well and most importantly - this is a real Sichuan pepper. You still have to try to find it in stores. But you can, if you really want to. This pepper will not leave anyone indifferent - its level of severity and sharpness breaks all records. So if you like "hotter", then be sure to add it to the Sichuan chicken.