[CH] Pon Pon Chicken
Douglas Irvine (dougandmarie@home.com)
Tue, 18 Apr 2000 08:28:51 +0000
Well, time to jump in here on this "Hacked Chicken" bit, which is
actually a Szechuan dish. Shao Hsing is a very potent Chinese rice wine
available at Asian grocery stores. The secret of the flavour of this
dish is really the sesame paste, for which peanut butter may be
substituted, but it aint the same! Trust me!! OK, here we go: Pon Pon Chicken...
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, about 2 lbs
3 tbls sesame seed paste, thinned with water or chicken stock OR
3 tbls smooth peanut butter combined with 2 tbls sesame oil
2 tsps light soy sauce
1 tbls red wine vinegar
2 tbls peanut oil
2-3 tsps crushed, dried hot chiles, whatever you have dried, habs best
1 tbls minced ginger root
1 tbls chopped scallion
1 tbls chopped garlic
1 tbls rice wine OR dry sherry
1 tsp Calvins OR Jim's smoked hab powder
1 tbls of toasted and ground Szechuan pepper corns
Place chicken breast in water with a little salt and simmer for about 5
- 10 minutes until just done, let cool and cut into strips.Put the
sesame paste, or peanut butter mixture in a bowl, add soy sauce &
vinegar, and blend until smooth, then blend in the oil, crushed chiles,
ginger, scallion, garlic, sherry or rice wine, Calvin's, and finally the
ground Szechuan peppercorns. Mix this all well together, and add the
reserved chicken strips. This dish is best when prepared in the morning
and refigerated, then served at room temperature. Like my cold lemon
chicken which I posted a couple of years ago, this is a great summer
time dish. If the dried crushed chiles you are using, are potent, you
will find this to be a fabulous dish....Cheers, Doug in BC