Tingly Chinese Chicken
My friend knows I’m always interested in unusual food, so when you messaged me to see if I wanted a jar of “this tingy chilli oil that my wife loves and you can’t get in the UK” I jumped. He also gave me a recipe which I adapted given what we had in.
What arrived on my doorstep (because social distancing) was a jar of dark green oil with bits it that when I stirred it turned out to be slightly jellied.
I had a turkey thigh to use after defrosting a a couple, so I used it and the darker meat worked well, chicken thighs would have worked well too.
You will need
- A turkey thigh or 2 chicken thighs, skinned and diced in 1 inch cubes (keep the skin)
- 1 big onion, cut into eight
- 1 desert spoon full each of ginger and ginger paste (or equivalent fresh and grated)
- 2 tablespoons of dark soy
- A tablespoon of Shaoxing cooking wine or in my case, dry sherry
- 1 inch of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks
- A big pepper, cut into slices
- 2 heaped teaspoons of Laoganma chilli flakes in oil
- 1 teaspoon of Tingly Green Magic
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
Do
- Put the onion and skin in a pan with a teaspoon of oil on a low heap to start cooking. As the skin leaches oil you’ll need to keep an eye on it
- In another pan put the minced garlic and ginger, soy, wine/sherry and a couple of cups of water, stick it on a high heat
- Once it’s boiling add the meat and turn the heat down to just boiling and pop a lid on
- The meat will take about ten minutes to cook through. Turn the heat off once it is but leave it in the liquid.
- Once the onions are mostly translucent with the odd one starting to catch remove the skin and add in the peppers and ginger, then stir it round for a few minutes
- Add the sugar, Tingly Green Magic and Laoganma. Give is a minute to start to heat though.
- Remove the meat from the cooking liquid and add. Turn the heat off and give it a good stir round.
- A handful of peanuts here wouldn’t have gone a miss.
Result
Pretty hot, weirdly tingly, sweet finish. Really very different. The jar will last a long time.
