Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken (台式三杯鸡 San Bei Ji)
You don't need to go to a restaurant to enjoy this popular Three Cup Chicken dish. As long as you have basil, all the other seasonings are quite common to the Asian pantry.
- Prep time
- 25 min
- Cook time
- 20 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1.5 lb bone-in skin-on chicken wings
- drumsticks
- thigh or a mix of the three
- 1 large ginger chunk (about 2 inch or 5 cm long)
- 5 or more garlic cloves
- 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 large pieces of rock sugar or 3 tablespoons of sugar
- 1/4 cup rice wine
- 1/4 cup light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
Instructions
- 1
Blanch the chicken. Cut the chicken into small pieces with a large cleaver. Put all the pieces in a small sauce pan and fill with cold water. Cover the lid and bring the sauce pan to a boil. When scum forms on the surface (even before the water starts boiling), take out all the chicken pieces. Rinse the chicken well until there's no more scum. Drain and set aside.
- 2
While blanching chicken, prepare the other ingredients. Cut the ginger into thin slices. Peel the garlic cloves. Wash and pat dry the basil leaves with a paper towel. Separate the basil leaves into individual leaves. Set aside.
- 3
Heat a well-seasoned wok or skillet under medium heat. When the wok is warm, add the 2 tablespoons of sesame oil follow by the ginger slices, whole garlic cloves, and the 2 large pieces of rock sugar, stirring often. Let the sesame oil slowly cook the ginger and garlic until they are golden brown and the rock sugar has broken down into tiny pieces and begin to resemble caramel.
- 4
Add the chicken pieces to the wok, immediately stirring and tossing to coat all the chicken pieces with sugar. Set the heat to medium-high. Then pour in the 1/4 cup of rice wine, 1/4 cup of light soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce, mixing evenly.
- 5
When the liquid sauce quickly starts bubbling, lower the heat to low and cover the lid. Keep the chicken simmering in the liquid sauce for 10 minutes.
- 6
>When the time is up, remove the lid. If the liquid sauce has become thick, turn off the heat and add all the basil leaves. (If there is still quite a good amount of liquid left, set the heat to medium-high and let the liquid quickly evaporate until the liquid sauce has significantly reduced and becomes thick.) Keep tossing for a minute and then transfer the chicken to a plate. Enjoy while warm!