Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Gongbao chicken


Chicken with peanuts. A great recipe! Use: 400 grams of chicken breast, 200 grams of peanuts, 10 grams each of Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing) and chicken stock, and 3 grams of salt; 10 grams of sugar, 4 grams of chinese dark vinegar and 5 grams of MSG; 5 grams of huajiao (Sichuan pepper or fagara), 10 grams of soy sauce and 5 dried chili peppers; 2 egg whites, 5 grams each of spring onion, garlic and ginger, 25 grams of cornstarch and 100 grams of oil.

Make a criss-cross pattern on the chicken and cut it into strips, then into chunks, marinate the chunks in salt, cornstarch, eggwhite and rice wine. Mix. Fry the peanuts in oil until golden and done. Fry the chicken cubes in hot oil (the Chinese use the term 60% hot out of 100%) and fiddle them apart a little bit, then take them out. Pour away almost all of the oil, leave a few tablespoons, in which you fry chili peppers (until fragrant), garlic, spring onion and ginger, then the chicken dice, then soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt and MSG (you can leave that out if you don't like it).

Then, on a very hot fire, add chicken stock and a little bit of cornstarch water to thicken it. Add the peanuts and put out on a plate. You will love the flavours of spicy, sweet and sour of this dish, which is a favorite of mine!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Brilliant! These chefs are so laid back and relaxed. I remember watching "the Chinese chef" in 1989 on the Dutch tv with chef Nico Tien, also such a calm person. The burners they use are so fiercely hot, much intenser than the ones we have on our Boretti's. You have to cook quick!I once saw an old woman in a small Chinese village cooking on a fire of hay, which burns rapid and intense, then I thought maybe this is why they have the fast cooking style, due to the way they make fire underneath their pans...

AndyJack said...

Fantastic videos & great instructions. Thanks