Spicy Chinese Chicken
The Guajillo (wha-hee-oh) chile is the most common dried chile in Mexico after the Ancho. The flavor of the Guajillo is distinct, slightly fruity with a strong piney, berry under taste. Guajillo flavors dished easily so a little goes a long way. This chile is between a 2-4 on the heat scale of 1-10. Guajillo, combined with the Passilla and Ancho, form the holy trinity of chiles used to prepare the traditional mole sauces.
Suggested Use:
A mildly hot chile. Use in sauces, salsa, soups and your favorite chile. A little goes a long way.
Ingredients:
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup low sodium chicken stock
4 tsp pink peppercorns
1/4 cup canola oil
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
1 small onion, sliced
3 whole chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, cut into bite sized cubes
4 whole chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, cut into bite sized cubes
2 tbsp Chinese black bean chili bean paste
2 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp Chinese chili oil (or make your own)
2 tbsp Shao Hsing Rice Wine
1 whole dry chile pepper, optional
4 whole green onions, thinly sliced
Cooked rice
Instructions:
Start by making your slurry. Add the chicken stock to a small mixing bowl, then whisk in the corn starch until it is nice and smooth.
To another large bowl, add the rice wine, black bean paste, chili oil, and soy sauce, and give a nice stir. Add the chicken and give it a good mix.
Heat your wok on medium, to medium high heat. Toss in your pink peppercorns, and stir those around for about thirty seconds. This will release some of their oils and get nice and fragrant. After you smell them, remove them and lightly crush them in your spice grinder, or mortar and pestle, you chose.
Return the wok to a medium high heat. Add the canola oil and let it come up to temperature. Toss in the onion, garlic, ginger, and crushed pink peppercorns. Stir fry that for 30 seconds or so, then add the entire chicken mixture. Raise the heat, and get stir frying.
Right when the chicken begins to turn color, stir the slurry mixture one more time, then add that to the stir fry. Give a good stir. This will begin to thicken a bit and give you a really great sauce that you will love eating with the rice. If you are using a dry chili of any kind, toss that in.
Once the sauce thickens, and the chicken is cooked through, add in about half of the sliced green onions. Give that a stir, then add everything to your serving dish. Shower the top with the remaining green onions.
To serve, simply get a bowl, add some rice, and spoon on generous amounts of the spicy Chinese chicken.
From simplecomfortfood.com