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.
