Bang Bang Chicken
Bang Bang Chicken
You may have seen bang bang chicken on Chinese restaurant menus. What they will bring you is chopped up chunks of chicken breast that been battered and deep fried covered in a chili sauce. This couldn’t be farther away from what real bang bang chicken is. Bang bang chicken gets it’s name from how the chicken was traditionally processed after being steamed: hammered with a wooden baton; creating a banging sound. You can use a mallet or a rolling pin the pound the chicken. Or you can completely skip this step and shredded the chicken with two forks.The sauce used in this dish has many complex flavors: sweet, spicy, savory, nutty, with a slight sourness from the chianking vinegar. After the chicken has been bang banged and shredded, the sauce is poured over. The chicken is garnished with green onions and even more chili oil. This chicken is extremely tender with a lot of spice. It’s currently eating the lining of my stomach as I type this. It’s 100% worth the agony.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
- 2 green onions
- 1 tsp salt
Sauce
- 4 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Chinese sesame paste
- 2 tbsp Sichuan chili oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp Chianking vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tsp ginger grated
- 1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns ground
Garnish
- green onions chopped
- Sichuan chili oil
Instructions
- Mix together the sauce ingredients. Set aside.
- Place a plate inside your steamer. Create a bed out of the green onions.
- Place the chicken on top of the green onions. Season with salt.
- Steam for 30 minutes. Cut into the thickest part of the chicken to check and see if it’s cooked all the way through.
- Let the chicken cool. Using a mallet, hammer down the chicken.
- Shred the chicken with 2 forks.
- Plate the chicken. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Garnish with chopped green onions. If you want more spice, drizzle more chili oil over the chicken.
How to make Chili Oil in an Instant Pot
Ever eat at a Chinese restaurant and they have that chili oil at the table? Then you end up putting it on everything because it’s so damn good. Well now it’s time to learn how to make it for a fraction of the price of the store bought brands. Making this couldn’t be easier using the Instant Pot. The most important thing in making this chili oil is to not burn the ingredients. You want to keep the oil between 225 and 250 degrees. The Instant Pot has a custom temperature setting which makes making this street free. You can still make this on a stove top if you don’t have an Instant Pot. Just make sure to use a cane thermometer to make sure the oil doesn’t get too hot. If the ingredients burn, you will have to start over.Most cultures have some sort of chili oil in their cuisine, all made very similarly. This recipe is for a Chinese style chili oil, so I used ingredients in Chinese cooking. If you were to make a chili oil for Italian cuisine, you would you’d Italian crushed chili flakes and maybe some garlic and dried herbs in the oil. So experiment with making different oils. The chili flake is always the main ingredient, followed by aromatics steeping in the oil.
Ingredients
- 2 cups vegetable oil
- 1 large cinnamon stick
- 5 star anise
- 3 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup crushed Szechuan chili flakes
Instructions
- Set your Instant Pot to the sauté function. Choose custom temp. Set to 230 degrees, Add your oil, cinnamon stick, star anise, peppercorns, and bay leaves to the Instant Pot. Cook for 30 minutes, giving an occasional stir. Let cool for 5 minutes.
- Put the crushed chili flakes in a mason jar. Take a small piece of cheese cloth and put it over the jar, with a rubber band around it to hold in place.
- Take out the cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Pour the oil into the mason jar. The cheese cloth will catch all of the peppercorns and star anise..
- Screw on the cover and let cool to room temp. Refrigerate up to 6 months.
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