Szechuan Inspired Chicken Salad
This fragrant zingy poached chicken salad is surprisingly easy to make and a tasty way to eat poached chicken.
This Szechuan chicken salad is inspired by many meals I have eaten in China and a great Sichuan cooking class with Cai Li from Let’s Play Dough not to mention the hours I have spent pouring over Fuschia Dunlop’s seminal work ‘The Food of Sichuan’.
The hilly fertile regions of Sichaun and neighbouring Chongqing are known for their fiery cuisine. Szechuan cuisine has become wildly popular across China in recent years with Szechuan restaurants popping up all over Shanghai and other major cities. Historical trading routes that passed through Szechuan province brought Middle Eastern vegetables and spices and later Sichuan province embraced the New World chili pepper. But the most unique and important flavour of the region is the Sichuan peppercorn, which has an intensely fragrant, citrus-like flavour that gives a "tingly-numbing" (麻; má) sensation in the mouth.
This Szechuan chicken salad recipe is an accessible (aka timid interpretation) of Sichuan chicken; I add a couple of grains of Szechuan pepper to the sous vide bag for the fragrance without the mouth-numbing effects.
Szechuan Chicken Salad
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 x chicken breasts
A thumb of ginger, chopped
Clove of garlic sliced
2/3 grains of Sichuan pepper
1 tablespoon of Chiu chow chili oil
1 tablespoon of rice wine
2 tablespoons of black Chinkiang vinegar
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
Cabbage, shredded
2 spring onions, white parts chopped and green parts in ribbons
A handful of peanuts, toasted
Coriander leaves to garnish
Salt and Pepper
Method
By far the easiest way to poach the chicken breast is by sous vide. I use the Anova system which has an easy to use app. Place the chicken in a sealed bag with the ginger, garlic, salt, and sichuan pepper. Cook at 65.5C in a water bath for 1 hour.
Alternatively, you can follow my recipe to poach a whole chicken as part of the stock-making process and remove the meat.
To make the sauce, combine the chili oil, rice wine, black vinegar, and sesame oil. Stir in some warm liquid from the sous-vide bag or a spoonful of the stock.
Lay the cabbage on the plate and toss with the white parts of the spring onion.
Brush the chicken with a few drops of sesame oil and slice into bite-sized pieces (skin up if using). Pour the sauce on the warm chicken so that it is absorbed by the meat.
Top with the peanuts, coriander leaves, and shredded green spring onion parts. Serve at room temperature.
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