Szechuan chicken with sesame cucumbers
Prep
15 mins
Cook
30 mins
Servings
4
Difficulty
Medium
This is one of my favorite weeknight dinners because it comes together in under an hour without any fussy techniques. The beauty of this Szechuan chicken is that it delivers serious restaurant quality flavor while keeping things simple in the kitchen. I love how the crispy chicken contrasts with the cool, refreshing sesame cucumbers on the side, and ginger in the sauce is wonderful for digestion while adding that warm, aromatic kick that makes this dish so craveable. Best of all, chicken thighs are budget friendly and stay juicy no matter what, so there's really no way to mess this up.
Ella x
Ingredients
- 5chicken thigh fillets( British chicken thigh fillets, cut into bitesized pieces)
- 3 tbspshaoxing rice wine
- 1 tbspsoy sauce
- 2 tbspclear honey
- 2garlic(small cloves garlic, crushed)
- 3 cmginger(piece ginger, peeled and grated)
- 750 mlssunflower oil( sunflower oil, for deep frying)
- 100 gramscornflour
- 245 gramsthe spice tailor fiery szechuan sauce(The Spice Tailor Fiery Szechuan Sauce)
- 6salad onion(salad onions, trimmed and halved)
- 2mixed green and red peppers(peppers, mixed colours, deseeded and cut into chunks)
- 25 gramscoriander(pack coriander, roughly chopped)
- 1cucumber(cucumber, trimmed and sliced into chunky batons)
- 1 tbspblack sesame seeds
- 2 tbsptoasted sesame oil
Detail level
Instructions
- 1
Mix the chicken with the rice wine, soy, honey, garlic and ginger in a bowl. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
- 2
When ready to cook, heat a 3cm-deep layer of oil in a wok or frying pan over a medium heat. Spread the cornflour out over a plate and line a second plate with kitchen paper. Remove the chicken from the marinade (shake off and discard the excess), then coat in the cornflour – do this in batches just before you fry.
- 3
Add about a third of the chicken pieces to the hot oil and cook for 5-6 minutes, flipping halfway, until golden, crisp, and cooked through, with juices that run clear and no pink meat. Remove to the lined plate and repeat until all the chicken is cooked. Meanwhile, scatter the cucumber with the sesame seeds, drizzle with the oil and season well with salt. Set aside.
- 4
Warm a wok over a medium heat. Fry the dry spices from the Szechuan kit for 1 minute, then add a drizzle of oil, increase the heat and stir fry the salad onions and peppers for 3-4 minutes until coloured. Add the small sauce sachet, cook for 2 minutes more, then add the larger one. Bring to a simmer, cook for 1 minute, then add the chicken and toss together to coat in the sauce, until piping hot. Stir through the coriander, then serve immediately with the cucumbers and rice.
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