Hot and Sour Chicken Salad 酸辣手撕雞 is a Sichuan dish with many variations. It’s actually my simplified version of the Bang Bang Chicken 棒棒雞. Bang Bang Chicken requires tenderizing the chicken by hammering the cooked chicken meat with a Chinese rolling pin, making a banging sound, thereby giving it its name. Sesame paste and sesame seeds are usual ingredients, but not necessary.
The way I poach the chicken is already quite tender. I think further tenderizing would cause it to lose the juices still in the meat. That’s why I skip this step. I prefer not adding sesame paste to make it less heavy and then I simply just always forget to add sesame seeds. So this dish is pretty much Bang Bang Chicken without the bang!
The sauce for Hot and Sour Chicken Salad 酸辣手撕雞 is such a versatile sauce. It’s very common to use this sauce in Sichuan and in the northern parts of China. You can add it to anything including plain noodles, poached meats, tofu, vegetables and seafood. Even cardboard could taste good with this sauce! Just kidding, don't eat cardboard! Unless you don’t like garlic or onions, which is mind boggling! But then I don’t like cilantro or bamboo shoots so we're even.
This is a really good recipe to have because you can make it ahead of time. It can be made casual where everything is chunky or you can make it fancy for parties or celebrations. I recently made it using a whole chicken for a lunch to celebrate a friend’s birthday. I called it a “banquet for two” since I made it extra fancy. In Cantonese tradition, as depicted in the idiom 無雞不成宴 (wú jī bū chéng yàn), it cannot be a banquet if there’s no chicken. We also had Deep-Fried Oysters, Fried Prawn Balls, Braised Abalone with Yee Mian, Papaya Peach Resin and Coconut Soup, Lobster Fruit Salad and Seafood Guoba. It was lots of fun and I think my friend was impressed! Making a meal for someone is a great way to make them feel special while flexing your culinary skills!
In my Hot and Sour Chicken Salad 酸辣手撕雞, I’ll show you how to poach chicken to preserve the elasticity of the skin and to get tender juicy pieces of meat. I cooked the sauce along with the ingredients, but you can also make the sauce without cooking it. This is a super delicious salad which I have made many times. I haven’t met anyone who didn’t love it!
Hot and Sour Chicken Salad 酸辣手撕
Ingredients
- 600 g Chicken , bone-in
- 172 g Jellyfish (Ready-to-eat) 1 small package
- 1 Cucumber (approx. 300 g)
- 180 g Sweet potato noodles , extra wide
- 2 Shallots , large
- 2 tbsp Garlic , chopped (approx. 6 cloves)
- 1 Red chili
- 1 stalk Green onions
- 2 sprigs Cilantro (optional)
- 2 slices Ginger
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Sand ginger powder (optional)
- ¼ tsp White pepper powder
- 2 tbsp White vinegar or Chinese spiced vinegar
- 1 tbsp Dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp Light soy sauce
- 2 tsp Sugar
- ¼ tsp Sichuan peppercorn powder or ½ tsp whole Sichuan peppercorns (optional)
- 2 tsp Sesame oil
- 5 tbsp Oil
- 4 tbsp Shaoxing wine
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add 2 slices ginger and 4 tbsp Shaoxing wine. Water should be enough to cover the chicken when submersed
- Prepare a large bowl of ice water and a strainer or tongs (to remove the chicken from the pot)
- When the water boils put the chicken in and count 10 seconds.
- Remove the chicken and place into ice water bath. Wait for the water in the pot to boil again
- Once water boils again, repeat steps 3 and 4 two more times
This step will make the chicken tender and will give the skin a more elastic texture - Turn the heat down to low and let the chicken cook until done. Water should be at a simmering boil, in other words, there should be little bubbles that form in the water.Approx cooking times for room temperature chicken (bone-in):small chicken legs - 15 minuteslarge chicken legs - 20 minuteswhole chicken under 3.5lbs – 30 minuteswhole chicken 3.5-5lbs – 45 minutes
- Prepare a new ice water bath for when the chicken is cooked. Submerse the chicken into the ice water bath for 5 minutes.
- Remove chicken from water and let it cool completely and air dry
- Slice shallots, julienne chilis, julienne green onions, chop cilantro and chop garlic. Set aside
I used red Fresno chilis which are quite mild. Choose any chili to suit your spice tolerance. If you want curly green onions with a milder taste, soak the julienned green onions in cold water for 15-30 minutes - In a saucepan, on medium heat, add 5 tbsp oil. Add shallots and fry until lightly golden. This may take 5-8 minutes
Cooking the sauce is optional. You can keep all the ingredients raw and simply mix it all together. Cooking it will make the flavour milder - Remove shallots, leaving the oil.
Or remove everything and pour the oil back into the saucepan - Add chopped garlic. Fry until aromatic
- Add chilis and Sichuan peppercorn powder. Fry for 30 seconds
- Add 2 tbsp vinegar, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp light soy sauce and 2 tsp sugar. When sugar is dissolved, turn off heat. Set aside
- Prepare sweet potato noodles as per instructions on the package.
I use the water that I cooked the chicken with to cook the noodles. The oil from the chicken will prevent the noodles from sticking to each other - Rinse the noodles with cold water, dry and add 2 tsp of the oil from the sauce and mix well.
- Rinse jellyfish and let dry or pat dry with paper towels
- Cut cucumbers into thick or thin pieces.
I cut them into long pieces to match the chicken and jellyfish but you can cut them whichever shape you like - De-bone the chicken and cut into shreds.
You may also shred by hand and then slice the skin with a knife - Combine the shredded chicken with the jellyfish. Season with ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp sand ginger powder and ¼ tsp white pepper powder. Mix well. Add 2 tsp sesame oil and mix well again
- Spread the cucumbers out on the bottom of a serving plate
- Add noodles on top of the cucumbers
- Add chicken and jellyfish
- Sprinkle with fried shallots
- Top with green onions and cilantro
- Pour the soy vinegar sauce on top
- Serve
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