Mouthwatering Chicken

Sichuan·Medium·25 min

Cold poached chicken sliced and drowned in a glossy red sauce of chili oil, sesame paste, black vinegar and numbing Sichuan pepper, scattered with peanuts and scallion. Its name means 'drool-inducing.'

A classic Sichuan cold dish; closely related to bang bang chicken (棒棒鸡), it dresses poached chicken in a chili-oil sauce balanced with sesame paste, Sichuan pepper and black vinegar.

Cool, silky chicken arrives first, then the sauce floods in: nutty sesame, sour vinegar, sweet, and a slow lip-tingling numbness from the Sichuan pepper. Crushed peanuts add crunch against the tender meat. You understand the name instantly.

Gentle poaching followed by an ice bath keeps the meat tender and the skin gelatinous and taut. Serving cold lets the emulsified chili-oil-and-sesame sauce cling without melting off, while Sichuan pepper delivers its signature ma (numbing) tingle.

Variations

Bang bang chicken style, with cucumber base, extra-numbing versions, with wheat noodles

On the Palate

Where Mouthwatering Chicken sits in the Chinese flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 tspSichuan Peppercorn

3 tbspPeanut

2Scallions

2 tbspSoy Sauce

How it's made

7 steps · 25 min

1
25 min
Poach a whole chicken or thighs gently in aromatics until just cooked through.
Watch out
Poach at a bare tremble, not a boil, and pull it the instant the juices near the bone run clear — hard boiling toughens the meat.
2
5 min
Plunge the chicken into ice water to firm the skin and stop cooking.
Watch out
Shock it in ice water right away until cold to the touch — that snap-chill tightens the skin taut and gelatinous.
3
6 min
Chop or slice the cold chicken into bite-size pieces.
4
3 min
Whisk chili oil, sesame paste, soy sauce, sugar and black vinegar into a sauce.
5
2 min
Add ground Sichuan pepper and a little of the poaching broth to loosen it.
Watch out
Loosen the sauce with broth until it coats a spoon and just pours — too thick and it clumps, too thin and it slides off the cold chicken.
6
2 min
Arrange the chicken on a platter and pour the sauce over generously.
7
2 min
Top with crushed peanuts, scallions and toasted sesame seeds.