Foodie

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Three Cups Chicken/San Bei Ji













When i was asked if i had a recipe for San Bei Ji aka Three Cups Chicken, i had to search the Internet to find out why this dish is so called and found a very good read at Wikipedia and that this dish is an offering to Wen Tian Xiang.
Many explained that the dish is so called for the 3 cups each of sesame oil, soya sauce and wine used. To me, it is more of a ratio to the ingredients than the cup used to measure - imagine the taste, if i had cooked with my dear friend, Nellie's cups - she has the largest cups you can find at her home. Perhaps, the cup used to measure in the original recipe could be the chinese wine cups which is about 1/3 cup - US measures.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup sesame oil
1 whole bulb garlic - peeled and minced
10 slices thin fresh ginger
2 serrano peppers, thinly sliced with seeds
2 lbs bone-in chicken pieces
1/3 cup soya sauce
1/3 cup shaoxing hua tiau wine
3 tablespoons sugar
2 cups thai basil
1 cup of 1-inch sections scallion

Method:

Heat up the sesame oil in a wok or a large skillet on high heat. Brown the chicken pieces, remove the browned chicken and set aside.

Add garlic, ginger and serrano peppers to the sesame oil, stir fry until fragrant.

Return the chicken pieces and stir in the soy sauce, rice wine and sugar.

Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to low.

Let cook, uncovered, until sauce thickens, about 30 minutes.

Turn heat back up to high and add basil and scallions. Stir to combine.

Serve over steamed rice.




Serves

7 comments:

SK said...

That looks great! I still order this dish once in a while during family get togethers in Chinese restaurants. Haven't tried to cook it though.

Mary Bergfeld said...

Your chicken looks grand, and the peppers and garlic would certainly wake up the taste buds

Princess Sarah and Princess Naomi said...

Dear Lily,

Thank you so much for all the recipes. They are great!

1st time cooking this dish, my husband loves it so much (English man)!

Btw, I have improvised this recipe by adding some dry basil during simmering (15-20 mins). I used LKK light soy sauce, so 2 table spoon (heap) of sugar is good enough. The taste of the chicken is great and very aromatic.

Thanks again for sharing.

Cheers,
Simone

Anonymous said...

Dear Lily,

Thank you so much for all the recipes. They are great!

1st time cooking this dish, my husband loves it so much (English man)!

Btw, I have improvised this recipe by adding some dry basil during simmering (15-20 mins). I used LKK light soy sauce, so 2 table spoon (heap) of sugar is good enough. The taste of the chicken is great and very aromatic.

Thanks again for sharing.

Cheers,
Simone

Anonymous said...

Dear Lily,

Thank you so much for all the recipes. They are great!

1st time cooking this dish, my husband loves it so much (English man)!

Btw, I have improvised this recipe by adding some dry basil during simmering (15-20 mins). I used LKK light soy sauce, so 2 table spoon (heap) of sugar is good enough. The taste of the chicken is great and very aromatic.

Thanks again for sharing.

Cheers,
Simone

ioyces said...

Hi Aunty Lily! I've got a silly question..for this recipe, is the soy sauce the light or dark type? Thank you!

Unknown said...

joyces

use light soy sauce and sometimes certain brands are darker. You can also use a tinge of thick caramel sauce(malaysian dark soya sauce) for color

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