Dinnerblog: Szechuan Chicken

Welcome to the first edition of Dinnerblog!  In this feature, I use the magic of digital photography to take you through the preparation of a nice meal from start to finish.

Our first recipe is Szechuan Chicken.  I'm sure anyone who's been to a Chinese restaurant will recognize this.  On the occasions when I've had it out, it's usually been very tasty but very greasy.  My recipe here attempts to minimize the greasiness while retaining the flavour you'd expect.

In case you feel like making your own (and you should), here's what you'll need:

• 3 large chicken breasts
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 2 large carrots
• 3 green onions
• thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 2 tbsp sherry, cooking or otherwise
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp chilli flakes (or more if you like it hot)
• 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 3 tbsp + 1 tsp sesame oil

Here's the photographed cooking process.  Click on any image to make it bigger.

I start by slicing the chicken breasts into thin cross-sectional slices.  This is easiest to do when the chicken is partially frozen.  Make sure it completely thaws before you actually cook it, of course.

Next I prep the vegetables.  I peel and slice the carrots, slice the peppers, and the green onions.  I probably should have sliced the carrots into thin strips to be consistent with the peppers, but meh.

In a bowl I get started on the sauce.  The base is the sherry, the soy sauce, the Worcestershire, and 1 tbsp of the sesame oil.  Sesame oil has a very strong flavour and you don't really need a lot of it.

I almost forgot to peel and mince some ginger!

The ginger, sugar, and pepper flakes get whisked into the sauce.

The sauce gets set aside for now.  Next step is the chicken batter, which I start in a second bowl.  It's the egg whites and the corn starch.

Here it is whisked together.  I make sure there are no lumps of corn starch left.

I toss the chicken in the batter until it's nicely coated.

Time to start cooking!  The wok contains a blend of the vegetable oil and 2 tbsp sesame oil.  You don't want to use all sesame oil here because it's expensive, and it has a low smoke point, which means it will get nasty under high heat, which is what I'm using here.  The burner is on high - we want a very hot wok.

I flick a bit of water into the oil to make sure the temperature is correct.  If it jumps around and sizzles immediately, it's hot enough.  That's when I add the chicken.

I fry the chicken until it is white on all sides.  This doesn't take long in the hot oil - less than five minutes on my crappy electric stove.

The chicken comes out and sits in paper towel to soak up the excess oil.  The oil itself is disposed of.

I put the wok back on the heat, add a teaspoon of sesame oil, and start stir frying the vegetables.  Hardest always goes first, and that's the carrots.

After a minute or so, I toss in the peppers.

After another minute, I make a well in the middle of the veggies and pour in the sauce.

Once the sauce starts bubbling I stir it in.  The chicken makes its triumphant return at this point.

The onions go in last.

A couple minutes later, it's done!

Szechuan chicken seen here served on medium grain white rice, paired with a nice British Columbia pinot blanc.  Yes I know that's a highball glass ... I lost/broke all my wine glasses.

Tantalizing close-up:

If you try this recipe, please tell me about it in the comments.  Enjoy!