Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year as it is still called) in 2021 falls on February 12th (Friday) 🧧. 2021 is the year of the metal Ox and according to the Chinese Zodiac this year is going to be lucky and perfect to focus on relationships; it is also a year when work will get rewarded. 🤩
In the spirit of the upcoming Chinese New Year, 🧧 I decided to prepare a Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken or San Bei Ji (三杯鸡) 🍗
It is easy to prepare and the meal derives its name from the three major sauce ingredients – soya sauce, Shaoxing rice wine and sesame oil. “Three cups” of each, add a little sugar and you have your succulent, delicious, nutty flavoured sauce for the chicken. 😋
Ingredients:
- 500 g of chicken breasts (you can also use thighs but I prefer boneless chicken breasts) chopped into cubes 🍗
- fresh basil 🌿
- 1 red bell pepper 🫑
- 15 slices of ginger
- 10-15 garlic cloves 🧄
- sesame oil
- soya sauce
- Shaoxing rice wine
- 1 table spoon of brown sugar
- salt to taste
Method 👩🍳
- Cut the chicken 🍗 into small bite-size cubes
- Peel and cut the garlic cloves in half 🧄
- Peel and cut 15 slices of ginger
- Cut the bell pepper in slices 🫑
- Time to make the sauce: I used a glass to measure the ingredients and filled it one third (so about 70-80 ml depending on the glass) of soya sauce, one third of Shaoxing rice wine and a bit less than one third of a glass of sesame oil (The sauce can become too greasy otherwise plus we would need extra oil later)
- Add one table spoon of sugar and mix well
- Pre-heat your hob to a high temperature. Add some sesame oil and wait until it heats up. Once hot, add the garlic cloves, ginger and pepper. Cover with a lid until they become golden – about 7-8 minutes (you might need to add a bit of water so they don’t burn)
- After the ingredients are brown and soft, add in the chicken cubes. Make sure you stir occasionally so the chicken is not burnt but cooked well on all sides.
- Add salt to taste
- Lower the temperature to medium and pour the sauce. Cover with a lid and let it cook for about 15 minutes. Don’t forget to stir occasionally
- In the meantime you could boil some rice or noodles on the side, if you wish.
- After 15 minutes, remove the lid and put the temperature back to high again so the sauce can thicken.
- Add 10-12 fresh basil leaves and mix everything well for another 5 minutes
- If the sauce has not thickened enough, you can add 1 table spoon of flour 😉 and stir well
Enjoy with a side of rice or noodles!
Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭禧發財 🥂 🧧
