Dry fried chicken

Source: Fuchsia Dunlop

Ingredients:

• 400g boneless chicken thighs, with skin
• 5 spring onions, white parts only
• 6-8 dried chillies
• 200g long green Turkish peppers
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tsp while Sichuan pepper
• 1,5 tbsp Sichuan chilli bean paste
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• an equivalent amount of ginger, peeled and sliced
• 0,5 tsp dark soy sauce
• a good pinch of caster sugar
• 1 tbsp chilli oil, with or without sediment.

Method:

Cut the chicken thighs into 2cm cubes. Cut the spring onion whites into 1cm lengths. Snip the chillies in half or into 2cm sections and shake out the seeds as far as possible. Trim off the stem ends of each green pepper and make a slit down its side so you can pull out and discard most of the seeds, then cut at a steep angle into 1cm 'horse ear' slices.

Heat the cooking oil in a seasoned wok over a high flame. Add the chicken and fry for about 4 minutes, until it is fragrant and tinged with gold. You can encourage it to colour by leaving it in a single layer of the base of the wok and only stirring intermittently. Add the chillies and Sichuan pepper and stir-fry until they are fragrant and the chillies are beginning to darken.

Tilt the wok, push the chicken up to one side and turn the heat down to medium. Add the chilli bean paste to the oil that pooled in the base and stir-fry unit the oil is red and fragrant then tilt the wok back, turn the heat up high and mix everything together. Add the garlic, ginger and spring onion whites and stir-fry briefly until fragrant.

Stir in the soy sauce and sugar, followed by the green peppers and continue to fry for another minute or two until the peppers are hot and sizzling, adding salt to taste.

Finally, stir in the chilli oil and serve.