SPICY SZECHUAN PEPPERCORN CHICKEN

This is how szechuan peppercorns look like. It is red in color.

Ingredients

7 pieces chicken - cut into small pieces

1 tbsp light soya sauce

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg white

3 tbsp cornstarch

10 dried chilies - cut about 1/2 inch long

2 cloves of garlic - sliced

2 inch of ginger - sliced

3 spring onions

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp sesame seeds - toasted

1 tbsp szechuan pepper - crush

salt

Method

1. Marinate chicken with light soy sauce and salt for 30 minutes.

2. Add egg white and cornstarch. 

3. Heat up oil and deep fry chicken until brown and cooked. Dish out and set aside

4. In the same pan, heat up 1 tbsp oil and stir fry garlic, ginger and dried chilies until fragrant.

5. Add chicken. Stir fry well. Add soy sauce, salt and szechuan peppercorns and stir fry well. 

6. Add salt and sugar to taste.

7. Add spring onions . 

8. After a quick toss, dish out and serve immediately.

Note : The original recipe used rice wine to marinade the chicken but since I do not consume alcohol, I just used dark soya sauce, salt, egg white and cornstarch for the chicken. There are suggestions to substitute the rice wine with apple juice or white grape juice but I don't think the taste would be the same. This is my first time cooking using szechuan peppercorns. Szechuan or Sichuan peppercorns is not related to black pepper or chili pepper and it is mostly used in Chinese cuisine (Szechuan variations of the Chinese traditional dish ).

Source: My Kitchen Snippets