Xinjiang Big Plate Chicken - 新疆大盘鸡

Chef's notes

Chicken can be substituted by assorted mushrooms and tofu.
Sichuan chilli bean pastes can be substituted by tomato paste or fresh tomatoes.
Pixian chilli bean paste 郫县豆瓣酱 Pí xiàn dòubàn jiàng
Light soy sauce 生抽 Shēng chōu
Cooking wine 料酒 Liàojiǔ
Vegetable oil 植物油 zhíwùyóu
Salt 盐 Yán
Sugar 糖 Táng

Recipe is originally credit of: https://thehutong.com/xinjiang-big-plate-chicken-xinjiang-dapan-ji/

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 30 minutes
• 🍳 Cook time: 1 hour
• 🍽️ Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 2 big chicken thighs or 1 whole chicken
• 3 medium-size potatoes
• 1 medium-size green chilli pepper
• 1 medium-size red chilli pepper
• 1 small yellow onion
• 10g ginger
• 5-8 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsp of Sichuan chilli bean paste
• 1tsp of salt or salt for taste
• 1tsp of sugar or sugar for taste
• 1 tbsp of cooking wine
• 2 tbsp of light soy sauce
• 1tbsp of dark soy sauce
• 2-3 tbsp of vegetable oil
• 250g wide noodle
• 1L Chicken/vegetable stock/water (or enough to cover ingredients)
• 10 pieces of dried chilli pepper
• 1 tbsp of Sichuan peppercorn
• 1 cinnamon bark
• 2 pieces of star anise
• 2 pieces of bay leaves
• a small pinch of white pepper powder

Directions

1. Wash the chicken and cut into bite-size pieces. Cut the potatoes and chilli pepper into small pieces about bite-size. Slice the ginger, onion & crush the garlic.
2. Heat 2-3tbsp of oil in a wok with low heat and add sugar in. When sugar is getting melted, add the chicken to stir fry quickly till the chicken meat tight and dried. Add the Sichuan peppercorn, dried chilli. star aniseed, cinnamon, bay leaves, garlic, ginger, onion to fry till fragrance.
3. Put Sichuan chilli bean paste, light soy, dark soy, cooking wine and mix well. Add water/ stock to boil and cover it and simmer it for about 3 min. and then mix the potatoes well in, (make sure all the potato and chicken will be merged in the water/stock) check-in between and stir a bit in while the liquid is reducing.
4. Get a fork to check the potato, if it could get through easily. They are cooked and add the bell pepper to fry about another 3 minutes till the liquid thicken up. Give a taste and adjust the flavour for saltiness. Serve with noodles, rice or bread.