Your email address is required to begin the subscription process. We will use it for customer service and other communications from Milk Street. You can unsubscribe from receiving our emails at any time.
Spicy Sichuan Steamed Chicken
This Sichuan chicken dish, called kou shui ji, usually is a poached whole chicken that’s sliced, then drenched in an aromatic chili oil sauce. Here we use only chicken breasts, cooking them in a chili oil infusion; the resulting cooking liquid becomes a spicy, flavorful sauce that’s drizzled over the sliced meat. Sichuan peppercorns, which have a unique tongue-tingling flavor, are unrelated to black or white peppercorns; they are reddish-brown and resemble tiny dried berries. Look for them in Asian supermarkets; if not available, use 1 teaspoon black peppercorns instead. The flavor will be different, but still good. The chicken can be served warm, room temperature or cold. Wrap the slices in lettuce leaves or serve over steamed jasmine rice with an extra drizzle of chili oil, if desired.
4
Servings
Tip
Don’t forget to remove the skin from the chicken. This helps the seasonings penetrate the meat and prevents the cooking liquid from becoming greasy with rendered fat.
1 hour
20 minutes active
Ingredients
-
¼
cup chili oil
-
1
inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
Directions
-
01On a 6 quart Instant Pot, select Normal/Medium Sauté. Add the chili oil, ginger, cilantro stems and Sichuan peppercorns. Cook, stirring, until sizzling and aromatic, 2 to 3 minutes. Press Cancel and let the mixture cool until the sizzling stops, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and ¼ cup water. Place the chicken breasts flesh side down into the liquid.
Pardon the interruption
You need to be a Milk Street Digital Member to see the full recipe
JOIN MILK STREET DIGITAL & PRINT
12 WEEKS FOR JUST $1
and get access to all of our recipes and articles online, as well as in print.
GET DIGITAL & PRINTReviews
Have made it twice, and the chicken comes out way over cooked, compared to how you would get it in a Chinese Restaurant.
Using a 6 Qt Instapot, following the timings to the letter. Chicken is even straight from the refrigerator going in.
Has anyone else here figured out the correct timing? Going to try manually reducing the pressure at the end of the pressure time the next time and not wait for the extended, natural cool down. I verified I am using the low heat setting on the pressure cooker, and it does take longer to get to pressure than recipes that use the higher setting.
Open to any guidance on how to fix this. I'm seeing the breasts coming out at 185 deg F, which of course is what is making them tough.
Thanks,
Harvey
This recipe is delicious! I followed Jovanna's advice and added sliced scallions at the end and it really added a nice flavor. I used two large, bone-in chicken breasts and cooked them on low pressure for 8 minutes, followed by a 15 minute natural release. They were right at 165 degrees, tender and juicy. I sliced and served them over a bed of jasmine rice with an extra drizzle of Chiu Chow style chili oil.
Become A Subscriber To Rate and Review All Our Recipes.
Please Log in or join today for $1.
This recipe was very easy and turned out quite well. I added some sliced scallions at the end along with the cilantro for some added flavor.