Mapo Chicken with Rice and Quick Kimchi Cucumbers

This dish is inspired by the delicious Mapo Tofu, but uses boneless chicken breast pieces instead. It is savory and spicy, in the tongue tingling way that only Sichuan peppercorns produce. It should be served on white rice, and adding a pickled component on the side really rounds out the flavors. You can find the chili bean paste and Sichuan pepper at most Asian markets, or use my links.

This dish is best served with rice, and it is nice with a side of pickled vegetables as well. These quick kimchi cucumbers are one of my favorite side dishes to make with any kind of Asian food. Check out my recipe for making homemade kimchi as well, which would go great with this.

Mapo Chicken with Rice and Quick Kimchi Cucumbers

A chicken take on the traditional mapo tofu

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Course Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

  

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For the chicken:

• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 4 tsp ground Sichuan peppercorns
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 6 garlic cloves chopped
• 2 inch piece ginger peeled and chopped
• 1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken sliced
• 2 tbsp fermented bean paste
• 1 tsp Chinese ground chili powder sub 1/4 tsp cayenne if you don't have this
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/4 cup chili oil recipe included
• sliced scallions for serving
• white rice for serving

For chili oil:

• 1/4 cup dried Sichuan chilies you can order these here
• 1/4 cup oil

Quick kimchi Cucumbers:

• 6 small seedless cucumbers
• 1/2 onion thinly sliced
• 2 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp gochugaru you can buy here
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 inch piece fresh ginger peeled and minced
• sesame seeds toasted

Instructions

 

For the oil:

• Toast 1/4 cup hot dried chili peppers (I used dried Sichuan peppers, but you could also use de arbol) in a pan until toasted and then add 1/4 cup canola oil and heat until the chilis start to bubble. Allow to cool and strain out the peppers and use. Store in the fridge if you don’t use it all. This makes very spicy oil so if you don’t like spice you can skip this and just use regular oil or leave it out.

For the cucumbers:

• Toss the cucumbers in the salt and let sit for 20 minutes. Mix together the rest of the ingredients other than the onion. Drain the excess water from cucumbers and rinse them thoroughly to remove the exc3ss salt. Don’t let them sit too much longer than 20 min or they will get way too salty. Dry them and add to your sauce ingredients and add the sliced onions and mix. You can serve right away, or you can let sit in the fridge a while and they get tastier.

For the chicken:

• Whisk cornstarch and chicken stock in a bowl. If using peppercorns not powder, toast them briefly in a hot pan and grind in spice ginder or with a mortar and pestle. I use pre ground powder from amazon to save time.
• Heat oil in a frying pan until very hot. Add ginger and garlic, and cook for about a minute, stirring so they don’t burn. Add the chicken and chili paste and cook and stir until the chicken is cooked through, a few minutes.
• Stir in the chili powder, wine, soy, and cornstarch mixture. Bring to a boil to thicken. Stir in the ground peppercorns, chili oil and half of the green onions. Serve over rice topped with remaining green onions.

Keyword Asian, Chicken, Lunch, Main Dish

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