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How to Make Xinjiang Big Plate Chicken

Big Plate Chicken

Estimated Cooking Difficulty: ★★★★

Essential Ingredients and Tools

  • Sichuan peppercorns, bay leaves, star anise, dried long peppers, garlic, green onions
  • Cooking oil, salt, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, cooking wine (beer can be used as a substitute), white sugar
  • Chicken (thigh meat is best), potatoes, green peppers, and sweet peppers (optional, added for color)

Calculations

Serves 2

  • Chicken from two drumsticks (approximately 1kg)
  • 2 medium-sized potatoes: 750g
  • 100g green onions
  • 1 green pepper and 1 sweet pepper, 50g each
  • 20g white sugar
  • 5 dried long peppers
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 50g cooking oil

Instructions

  • Cut the meat into chunks, soak in water with salt for 5 minutes to remove blood and fishy odor, then drain well.
  • Wash the green onions, garlic, peppers, and potatoes; peel the potatoes.
  • Cut the white parts of the green onions into 4cm long segments; cut the green peppers and long peppers into chunks.
  • Cut the potatoes into rolling-cut chunks (cut, then roll the potato, repeat) until each piece is about 4cm x 4cm.
  • Make caramelized sugar: Add oil to the pan, then add white sugar. Stir continuously with a spatula until the sugar melts and turns golden brown. Add the drained chicken pieces to stir-fry and coat them with the caramel.
  • Add Sichuan peppercorns, bay leaves, star anise, and dried long peppers; stir-fry.
  • Add 5g salt, 7ml light soy sauce, 10g oyster sauce, and 100g cooking wine. Pour in 1 liter of water. Cooking wine can be replaced with beer.
  • Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce to low-medium heat and simmer slowly to infuse flavors.
  • When the liquid reduces to just above the chicken, place the potatoes on top of the chicken. Do not stir the potatoes; just cover them on top to prevent sticking. Continue to simmer with the lid on. After a while, add the green onions, green peppers, and sweet peppers, and continue simmering.
  • When the sauce has reduced sufficiently, flip the ingredients to coat the potatoes with the sauce. Turn off the heat and serve.

Note: This dish is great with noodles. Buy thick noodle dough, flatten it, and hand-pull it into wide noodles. It must be wide noodles. After cooking, you can add them to the Big Plate Chicken and mix with the sauce for an excellent flavor!

Big Plate Chicken with Wide Noodles

Additional Content

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improvement while following this guide, please submit an Issue or Pull request.