How To Make Szechuan Chicken

If you’re a spicy food fiend, Szechuan chicken is a stir-fry dish that should absolutely be in your weeknight dinner rotation. It’s aromatic, fiery, and even a bit tongue-numbing as you bite into juicy pieces of chicken perfumed with a dynamite trio of Szechuan peppercorns, dried chiles, and white pepper. It comes together quickly in one pan, making it a solid dinner contender that’s guaranteed to spice things up. Here’s how to do it.

Szechuan chicken is named after the southwestern Szechuan province in China. The cuisine there is well-known for its bold, spicy flavors, with dried chiles and peppercorns making their way in generous quantities into many dishes. This flavor combination is best described as not just spicy, but slightly fruity and a bit tongue-numbing from the Szechuan peppercorns. Many variations of Szechuan chicken can be found, including some made with a chili bean paste. The chicken itself can be boneless or bone-in, deep-fried or stir-fried. Our version uses boneless chicken, which is easier to cut up, and skips the deep frying in favor of a quick stir-fry instead.

In addition to the chicken, here are the three key ingredients you’ll need for the signature spicy flavor.

• Dried chiles: Small and inexpensive, red Asian dried chiles pack lots of heat and add a bright pop of color to the stir-fry. Look for them in Asian grocery stores, where they are sometimes labeled Japones. Use 15 in this recipe if you like things mildly spicy, and up to 20 if you like things really spicy.
• Szechuan peppercorns: Whole dried Szechuan peppercorns can be found in the spice aisle. Although there are green Szechuan peppercorns, the commonly available ones and the ones used in this recipe are red, and they provide more tingle than spice to the stir-fry. If there’s no color indicated, it’s most likely red.
• White pepper: Ground white pepper is more floral and earthy than its black counterpart and is commonly used in Chinese cooking. Use freshly ground if you can for the best punch of flavor.

The remaining ingredients are easy to find. You’ll need aromatics like garlic, ginger, and scallions, plus soy sauce, cornstarch, and sherry or Shaoxing wine for marinating.

To make Szechuan chicken, start by marinating the chicken in soy sauce, dry sherry or Shaoxing wine, salt, pepper, and cornstarch, and let it sit while you fry the chiles.

Frying the dried chiles in some oil is an first important step in the cooking process because the chiles flavor the oil, which in turn flavors the whole stir-fry. The frying also helps crisp up the chiles so that they can be crumbled back into the stir-fry later.

After the chiles are fried, fish them out of the pan with a slotted spoon so that the oil is left behind and can be used to cook the chicken. Get a nice dark brown sear on the chicken, then throw the aromatics and the fried chiles into the pan. Finish by adding scallion greens for freshness and just a teaspoon of sugar, which adds the tiniest bit of sweetness to balance all the savory, spicy flavors. Serve with some simply sautéed greens like bok choy or spinach and steamed rice for a warming, comforting dinner.