紅油雞絲 Shredded Chicken with Red Chili Oil
This is a popular Sichuan cold dish easy to prepare once you made the red chili oil I demonstrated previously. Instead of knife cutting, chicken is shredded by hand to give a better texture. Red chili oil, vinegar, soy sauce, coriander and minced garlic comprise a sauce with rich flavors slightly numbing, spicy but not burning yet savory tastes. Traditionally this dish blends shredded chicken with just chopped coriander leaves or cucumber shreds, but as usual, I like to add more veggies to pack in more nutrients.
Ingredients:
- 1 large chicken breast or two smaller ones (around 200 g)
- 1 egg white
- 6-8 dried wood ear (or as desired)
- 2 medium size carrots
Sauce (for 2 servings)
- 4 teaspoon of red chili oil
- 3 teaspoon of soy sauce
- 3 teaspoon of rice vinegar
- 2 pinch of salt
- 2 pinch of sugar
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 stem of scallion
The making:
- Prepare chicken breast. Butterfly the chicken breast, making it thinner for short boiling. Sprinkle some salt and marinate chicken in egg white for 10 minutes.
- Reconstitute wood ear by soaking in water for 10 minutes.
- Bring water to boil, put in chicken breast and boil for 1 minutes, then turn off heat, leave chicken soaked in water with lid on for 7-8 minutes. Remove chicken breast after time is up, soak in cold water to cool down then drain the chicken. By doing so, you will have a chicken breast very tender and juicy. Tear the chicken flesh into thin shreds when it’s still lukewarm, set aside.
- Bring water to boil again to cook wood ear and carrots for several minutes until soften, turn off heat, drain wood ear and carrots. Cut wood ear and carrots into thin slices after cooled down. Wood ear and carrot slices should be roughly same size of chicken shreds.
- In a serving bowl, put in chopped coriander leaves, chopped scallion, minced garlic, and all sauce ingredients blend and mix well. Then add chicken shreds, wood ear and carrot slices, blend evenly then serve.
