Sichuan Pepper Chicken

After moving to the US............. I was reminded of all the amazing food back home in India. I learnt how to cook most of the food that we wanted to eat by asking mom, reading books, the internet and sometimes by just remembering the taste and recalling the ingredients.

One such spice was the 'Sichuan Pepper' also called as 'Teppal' or 'Triphal' in Konkai & Marathi respectively. However, I never got hold of this in the US. Craved for the fish curry with this spice. Finally got a hold of it on the amazon store and bought the bottle.  It smells like the teppal back home - but these are small in size and a little red in color too. But, they are still the same and I am glad to have my hands on it now. Here is the link - Ajika-Sichuan-Peppercorns
Well - the day we got this bottle, we wanted to use it. We had no fish at home and hence fish curry was out of question. Well, the name is sichuan pepper - which is so southeast Asian. Well, we decided to make a nice chili chicken type dish - only with no chilies but with the spice in the bottle. Well, it turned out quite nice. We loved it and this dish is a keeper now.

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken thighs - cut into bite size pieces
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce - you can use any soy sauce you have
3 tablespoons peanut oil - again, you can use any oil of your chocie (just do not use extravirgin olive oil)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt - you can skip salt if you want as the soy sauce has salt in it.
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 teaspoons sichuan pepper - crushed - I coarsely powdered mine in the spice/coffee grinder
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon grated garlic
1 bunch spring onions/scallions - chopped
1/4 teaspoon chili powder - you can skip it if you do not want this spice.
1/4 teaspoon crushed black pepper
1/2 cup oil for frying

Method

Add the soy sauce, sugar, salt, chilli powder, black pepper powder and 1 teaspoon crushed sichuan pepper in a bowl and mix well. Add the chicken pieces and coat each piece with the marinade. Let it sit for 15 minutes. Heat the 1/2 cup oil in a wok/karahi. Add the cornstarch to the marinated chicken and coat all pieces well. Now fry the chicken untill it gets cooked fully, about 7 to 10 minutes. I fried the chicken in 2 batches. Remove the chicken onto a plate.
Let the oil cool - remove it into a bottle if you wish to use it once again or you can discard it.
In the same wok add the 3 tablespoons of peanut oil (if you wish you can use 3 tablespoons of the oil the chicken was fried in too). When the oil gets hot, add the ginger and garlic and the white portion of the chopped spring onions/scallions and saute for about 30 second - be careful not to burn the garlic. Bring the heat to medium and add the balance 2 teaspoons of crushed sichuan pepper and mix well. Add the fried chicken and coat it well with the ginger, garlic and scallion mixture. Remove into a serving dish and garnish with the green part of the spring onion/scallions.
This could be served as a starter or it could be teamed with some ginger and egg fried rice as a full meal (thats how we had it)

Veg Manchurian

Ingredients

For Manchurian

1 cup finely chopped cabbage

1 cup grated carrots

1/2 cup grated cauliflower

1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped green beans

1 bunch finely chopped green onions/scallions (about 5 to 7 stems)

2 tablespoons corn starch

2 tablespoon all purpose flour

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 tablespoon chopped ginger

1 tablespoon chopped green chillis (you can alter this to suit your taste)

salt to taste

oil for frying

For sauce

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 tablespoon chopped ginger

1 bunch green onion/scallions - chopped (keep a few of the chopped green stems aside for garnish)

3 tablespoons soy sauce (dark)

1 tablespoon sweet & sour sauce

1 tablespoon corn starch

2 cups water

salt to taste

Method

For machurian

Mix all the veggies and add 1 teaspoon of salt and let it stand for about 15 minutes. This is done to get all the water out of the veggies - so that the dough you make later does not get too soggy. Drain the water by squeezing the veggies well with a cheese cloth - you can do it by hand too. To this add the chopped garlic, chopped ginger, chopped chillies, chopped scallions, soy sauce, salt (only if required), corn starch and the flour and knead well. You should be able to make small manchurian balls which can be fired. Heat oil in a wok and add one manchurian first - see that it stays intact and does not break - if it breaks, just add a little more flour to the dough and mix well and try again.

Once all the manchurian is fried - drain it on a paper towel and let it stand till the sauce is made.

For Gravy

In a wok add oil. when it gets hot add the garlic, ginger and scallions and stir well to get the aromatics - be careful not to burn the garlic. add soy sauce and sweet & sour sauce and stir well. 

This is the simple sauce to make dry manchurian for appetizer

Then add 2 cups of water and mix well. make a simple mixture of the corn starch and water and add it to the manchurian gravy and stir well so no lumps are formed. this gravy should thicken now. If you want it to be more thick - just make some more corn starch mixture and add. Add salt to taste and bring it to a boil. Now add the fried manchurians and let it stand for about 20 minutes. Garnish with the scallions kept aside and serve with hakka noodles or fried rice.

Chilli Chicken

Ingredients

1 pound chicken - cut into bite size pieces
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
1 egg - beaten
1/2 cup oil
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon corn flour/corn starch
1 large onion - cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 capsicum/green bell pepper - cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 tbs - chopped garlic
1 tbs - chopped ginger
2 tbs - chopped green chillis (you can alter this according to our spicy needs)
2 tablespoons soy sauce (I used dark soy sauce)
1 tablespoon sweet & sour sauce
little bit of sriracha
chopped green onions / scallions - for garnish

Method

Marinate the chicken with chili powder, pepper powder, salt, garlic powder and soy sauce. Let it stand for 20 to 30 minutes. To this add 1 beaten egg and the cornstarch and all purpose flour - coat all the chicken pieces with the egg and flour mixture.
Heat oil in a wok and then add these chicken pieces in 2 batches to get a nice crispy coating on the outside and cooked white chicken meat on the inside.
Remove the chicken pieces and drain them on a paper towel. To the remaining oil - which is already hot - add the garlic, chillis and ginger and stir for about 20 seconds - be careful not to burn the garlic. Add the chopped onions and bell pepper and stir fry for about 5 minutes. Then add the soy sauce, sweet and sour sauce and the sriracha and mix well. Then add the fried chicken pieces and coat them well with the sauce and veggie mixture. Add salt to taste - remember soy sauce, sweet & sour sauce and sriracha already have salt.
Garnish with chopped green onions.