Taiwanese-Style Three Cup Chicken
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 1 pound boneless chicken leg/thighs (about 3-4 pieces), cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 small piece of ginger, cut into 5-6 thin slices
  • 1 head of garlic, peeled into cloves
  • 2 stalks of green onion, cut into long pieces
  • 3-4 dried chili pepper (optional)
  • a handful of fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ cup sesame oil for cooking (ideally toasted sesame oil, regular sesame oil will work too)
  • a few drops of sesame oil on top for garnishing
  • Seasonings:
  • ¼ cup cooking wine
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce (helps add a nice brown color to the chicken)
  • 2 tablespoons worth of sugar (ideally Chinese rock sugar, cane sugar will work too, use 1.5 tbsp instead)
Instructions
  1. Mix cooking wine, soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar well in a bowl and set aside.
  2. Heat sesame oil over medium-low heat till shimmering, sauté the ginger slices for 2-3 minutes or until browned and crisp.
  3. Add the garlic cloves, cook a minute or until fragrant.
  4. Stir in the green onion and dried chili peppers, sauté until fragrant.
  5. Turn to medium heat and add the chicken to the pan. Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink.
  6. Grab the seasoning mixture made in step one, give it a good stir and pour into the pan.
  7. Turn to high heat and stir the ingredients well to make sure the seasonings are evenly distributed.
  8. When the sauce starts to boil, turn to medium-low heat and simmer until the sauce has thickened, stir occasionally while cooking.
  9. Sprinkle the fresh basil leaves around the pan, simmer for another minute or two until soft.
  10. Transfer to a large plate and drizzle a few drops of toasted sesame oil on top and enjoy while hot!
Notes
1. The skin helps to keep the chicken moist and make the meat more tender and flavorful. Plus, the cooked chicken skin itself is super delicious. I recommend using skin-on chicken leg/thigh.
2. I used dried chili pepper to add some heat to the dish, however, this is optional.
3. Toasted sesame oil has a richer flavor than regular sesame oil, but if you don’t have it at hand, regular sesame oil will work too.
4. Rock sugar (also known as crystal sugar) is slightly less sweet in taste compared to cane sugar.

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Recipe by Spice the Plate at https://www.spicetheplate.com/chicken/taiwanese-style-three-cup-chicken/