Dish of Chicken with Preserved Vegetable
(click to enlarge)

Chicken with Preserved Vegetable


China, Sichuan   -   Jimi yacai
Serves:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 2 main
**
30 min
Prep		 This dish from Sichuan, featuring interesting contrasts of flavors and textures requires only moderate prep and cooks very quickly. Despite being from Sichuan, this recipe is low in chili heat (if you disarm the red chilis). See also Comments.

14
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1
1
1
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2
4
4
4
1/2
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2
oz
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T
T
T
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oz
oz
cl
in
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T

Chicken (1)
-- Marinade
Rice Wine (2)
Potato Starch
Water
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Chili, Red fresh (3)
Chili, Green fresh (4)  
Preserved Veg (5)
Garlic
Ginger Root
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Oil
Prep   (45 min)
  1. Slice CHICKEN into 1/4 inch dice, or as close to that as you can get with your chicken.
  2. Mix Marinade items with the Chicken and massage together well. Set aside to marinate 1/2 hour or so, tumbling now and then.
  3. Blast RED CHILIS and GREEN CHILIS black with your Map Gas Torch (see Note-6) and wipe off skins under running water. Cut both into pieces about the same size as the Chicken. Mix.
  4. Rinse PRESERVED VEGETABLE very thoroughly to reduce salt. Squeeze it out well, and chop it fairly small if needed.
  5. Crush GARLIC and chop fine. Slice GINGER very thin, cut slices into slivers and then chop the slivers fine. Mix both with Preserved Vegetable.
RUN   (10 min)
  1. In a wok or spacious sauté pan, heat Oil over high flame. Stir in Chicken. Fry stirring over high flame until it has lost its raw color. The starch will start sticking to the pan, but cooking is so short it won't darken more than to a medium blonde.
  2. Stir in Garlic mix and fry stirring until aromatic.
  3. Stir in Chili Mix and fry stirring until they are crisp tender, about a minute.
  4. Serve hot with plenty of steamed long grain rice.
NOTES:

  1. Chicken:

      Weight is for skinless, boneless chicken. I always use thigh and/or leg meat because it is moist and flavorful compared to the cardboard chicken breasts produced in North America.

  2. Rice Wine:

    Use a good drinkable Chinese rice wine. The cooking versions are heavily salted and not that good to start with. If you don't have the rice wine use a dry sherry. Sake, though made from rice, is not considered a good substitute. For details see our Chinese Rice Wine page.

  3. Red Fresh Chilis:

      All the ethnicities here in Southern California have found the Red Fresno chili to be fine for their cuisines. Two large Fresnos weigh about 1-1/2 ounces. Holland Reds will also work, and Red Anaheims, though they have thicker walls. For details see our Chilis page.

  4. Green Fresh Chili

      The pattern recipe calls for "Long Turkish Chilis". Those are not available in California, and probably not much elsewhere in North America (and probably not in Sichuan either). I use Green Anaheims, the smallest ones I find in the bin.

  5. Preserved Vegetable

      The pattern recipe calls for Yibin Yacai, while admitting your chances of finding it outside Sichuan are about zero. Fuchsia Dunlop says Tianjin Preserved Vegetable (sold in squat ceramic jars in most Asian markets) is similar, but also mentions Sichuan Vegetable as usable. For details on these and other potential substitutes, see our Pickled & Preserved Cabbages page.

  6. Blasting Chilis

      This is NOT called for in the pattern recipe, but I always do it. It gives the chilis a nicer texture, and also prevents loose chili skins floating around when dishes are reheated. With the Map Gas Torch it takes just a few minutes to accomplish this improvement.

  7. Comments

      Despite the unquestionable authenticity of the pattern recipe, I suggest some options. In contrast to China, where many dishes may be presented, I normally eat stir fries with rice and nothing else. For that purpose I prefer some liquid sauce. Also, there will be quite a bit of fond adhering to the pan, which would act as a flavorful thickener stirred into a sauce. To this end I suggest 1/2 cup stock be stirred in after the preserved vegetable step and the fond scraped up into the sauce. The Chinese already consider me a foreign barbarian, so what's to lose?
  8. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch ar=as required tt=to taste
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