How to Make Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken
(Photo: Kimberly Wang)
Since I’ve been on a Taiwanese food kick, it would be a major oversight if I neglected to add three cup chicken, AKA 三杯雞, to the blog. It’s bursting with umami flavor and always a favorite. The “three cups” its name refers to is one cup of sesame oil, one cup of rice wine, and one cup of soy sauce, but the name a bit of a misnomer as to achieve the perfect chicken, the proportions aren’t exactly that. Read on to see how I make the perfect three cup chicken.
(Photo: Kimberly Wang)
Ingredients
Makes about 6 servings
3/4 cup of sesame oil
5 stalks of scallion, trimmed and chopped into 1-inch segments
12 cloves of garlic, peeled
4 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced into discs, approx. 12 slices
2 fresh Thai chilis, chopped, or 3 dried red chili peppers (optional)
3 lbs of bone-in, skin-on dark meat chicken (i.e. wings, thighs, drumettes, and/or drumsticks. I used drumsticks, as, in quarantine, it was all I could get)
2 tablespoons of light brown or cane sugar
1 cup of light soy sauce
1/4 cup of dark soy sauce
1 cup of rice cooking wine
2 cups of ideally Thai basil, but sweet basil also works
(Photo: Kimberly Wang)
Directions
1. Start by heating your sesame oil over medium high heat until the oil begins to shimmer. Then add your scallions, ginger, garlic, and pepper and stir until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
(Photo: Kimberly Wang)
2. Next, add your chicken to the pan and sear on each side for about 3 minutes or until the chicken begins to cook through and brown around the edges.
(Photo: Kimberly Wang)
3. Then, stir in the sugar until it's dissolved. Next, add the light soy, dark soy, and rice wine. Bring to a boil, and immediately lower heat to a simmer. Allow the chicken to simmer with the lid off for 30 minutes, giving each piece a turn about every five minutes or so to get an even color throughout
(Photo: Kimberly Wang)
3. Lastly, right before you take the chicken off the heat, stir in the basil until it is wilted, about 30 seconds or a minute. Then, turn off the heat and serve hot on a bed of white rice.
(Photo: Kimberly Wang)