{"id":16617,"date":"2015-06-24T11:36:37","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T09:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=16617"},"modified":"2015-06-25T00:13:36","modified_gmt":"2015-06-24T22:13:36","slug":"sichuanese-chicken-salad-with-chilli-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=16617","title":{"rendered":"Sichuanese Chicken Salad with Chilli Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"chickenchillioil\"I always like being positively surprised by recipes I don’t expect much from, particularly if they are as simple as this one. You steam or boil a chicken breast, slice it, add some green onion, drizzle\u00a0it with chilli oil sauce\u00a0and you obtain a\u00a0light, cooling\u00a0summer dish with a spicy kick that completely\u00a0transforms the delicate white\u00a0meat.\u00a0When I took the first bite I couldn’t believe such a complex taste can be obtained in such a short time, with so few ingredients and with hardly any effort.<\/p>\n

This cold chicken dish that I have allowed myself to call a salad is another discovery from Sichuan Cookery by Fuchsia Dunlop<\/a>,\u00a0a book written\u00a0with a huge\u00a0passion for the culinary heritage of this Chinese region and full of fascinating recipes that always give delicious results. Sichuan Cookery\u00a0contains several cold chicken dishes and I want to try them all this summer, so I simply started with the first on the list. I have slightly changed the amounts, so check her book to read the original recipe. Fuchsia Dunlop’s recipe doesn’t contain lots of oil (I still have reduced\u00a0the amounts a bit…), but from what I see on internet, this Sichuanese cold chicken\u00a0is often\u00a0served literally drowned\u00a0in oil. If you like this dish more greasy, feel free to adapt\u00a0the oil sauce’s amount.<\/span><\/p>\n

TIP: Since my homemade chilli oil (Japanese, but definitely Chinese-inspired Taberu Rayu<\/a>) is made partly with sesame oil, I have used only\u00a0chilli oil, but if your hot\u00a0oil is different, make sure you add some sesame oil too. It makes a huge difference in taste.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you don’t have chilli oil with sediment, it’s very easy to prepare its\u00a0simplest version: pour very hot oil (not boiling!) over chilli powder or flakes and let it cool down. The oil with have more taste every day, but you can use it as soon as it is cold.<\/p>\n

You can used here either boiled or steamed chicken breast or sliced meat from a whole chicken.<\/p>\n

I find this salad very flexible: it\u00a0is as good served with rice as it is with bread or any carb you choose\u00a0(cold noodles, tortillas, cr\u00eapes…). It works perfectly\u00a0as a “topping” in a bowl of green salad leaves and as a sandwich\u00a0filling.<\/p>\n

Fuchsia Dunlop says the chicken and onion bits should be equally sized, but as you can see, I haven’t managed to do it.<\/p>\n

Since the oil goes immediately down to the bowl’s \u00a0bottom and you are left with sediment on top of chicken pieces, I would advise serving this dish on a flat plate or adding oil at the table.<\/p>\n

Preparation: 5 minutes<\/em><\/p>\n

Ingredients (serves one):<\/em><\/p>\n

1 small chicken breast (boiled or steamed) or the equivalent of parts from a whole chicken, cooled and sliced diagonally<\/em><\/p>\n

Sauce :<\/em><\/p>\n

1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon sugar (agave syrup or honey)<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon chili oil with sediment\u00a0(but if your oil is without sediment, just use your clear oil)<\/em><\/p>\n

1\/2 teaspoon sesame oil (or double the\u00a0chilli oil amount if it contains\u00a0sesame oil too)<\/em><\/p>\n

1\u00a0spring onion, cut into bite-sized pieces<\/em><\/p>\n

Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl stirring until the sugar is well dissolved (if using sugar).<\/p>\n

Combine the sauce with the chicken and spring onion and serve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I always like being positively surprised by recipes I don’t expect much from, particularly if they are as simple as this one. You steam or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[185,149,125,183,85,22],"tags":[12,202],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16617"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16617"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17785,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16617\/revisions\/17785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}