Not for the faint-hearted, this Spicy Szechuan chicken stir fry is made with Szechuan (Sichuan) peppers for that tongue-tingling heat. Plus plenty of dried red chillies too!
If you like heat you’re gonna love this one!
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Szechuan chicken, also known as Sichuan chicken, Mala Chicken or Laziji, is a beautifully spiced stir-fried chicken dish, usually served dry, rather than saucy, and characterised by the use of Szechuan peppercorns and lots of dried red chillies.
Originating in Chongqing (in Southwest China) it’s a hugely popular dish. Often the chicken is deep-fried (I shallow-fry mine) and the amount of dried chillies in the dish tends to far outweigh the amount of chicken.
I’m going a fair bit lighter on the chillies for my recipe. However, if you leave them whole, they don’t actually add too much heat anyway. It’s when they’re chopped and those chilli seeds are released that the heat level starts to increase!!
For my recipe, I’m leaving most of the chillies whole and just chopping up a few of them.
📋 What do we need?
Full recipe with detailed and measurements at the end of this post.
For the Chicken & Marinade:
I recommend using chicken thighs for this recipe as they stay tender when you shallow fry them after marinating however you can replace with Chicken breast if you prefer.
For frying:
Chilli Bean Paste – known as toban djan or doubanjiang – if you can’t find this, you can replace with Gochujang (a Korean Chilli paste that’s little sweeter, but still good), or at a push, hoisin sauce mixed with a good pinch of chilli flakes.
📋 What are Szechuan Peppercorns?
Szechuan or Sichuan peppercorns are actually berries from a type of prickly ash tree, rather than pepper. They give a tingly-numbing effect on the tongue when eaten (which goes away pretty quickly).
You can buy them in most larger supermarkets, and when ground up they have a highly floral and citrusy scent.
You can buy red or green szechuan peppers. The red are stronger in flavour, but the green have more of a numbing effect. You can use either for this dish.
🔪 How to make it
Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- First we marinate chicken thigh pieces in soy sauce, rice wine, white pepper and cornflour. It only needs to marinate for a short period of time – 30 minutes is enough, but you can marinade for longer (up to overnight) if preferred.
- Then we fry the chicken in oil until golden and remove from the pan.
- Next up we fry the dried chillies in a little sesame oil, before adding in the ground Szechuan peppers, garlic, ginger and spring onions.
- Add in a little more soy sauce along with rice wine, chilli bean paste and some sugar to balance out the spice and salt.
- Add the chicken back in a toss together before serving.
👩🍳PRO TIP If you like it hot, chop up 5-10 of the dried chillies. If you want it a little milder, use fewer dried chillies and don’t chop them up.
Serve over a big pile of fluffy boiled rice.
🍽️ What to serve it with
Check out the full recipe in the recipe card below. I really hope you love this dish. If you try it I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments 😊
🍲 More fantastic stir fry recipes
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Szechuan Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
Chicken and marinade:
- 8 boneless chicken thighs chopped into bitesize chunks
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
- ¼ tsp white pepper
- 2 tbsp cornflour cornstarch
For Frying:
- 240 ml (1 cup) sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 onion peeled and chopped into chunks
- 25 dried red chillies chop 5 of them into small pieces and leave the rest whole
- 1 ½ tsp Sichuan peppercorns ground using a pestle and mortar (the 1 1/2 tsp is measured BEFORE grinding)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tsp minced ginger
- 5 spring onions scallions roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
- 1 tbsp chilli bean paste *See Note
- 1 tbsp sugar
Instructions
- Place the chicken pieces in a bowl with the rest of the marinade ingredients. Stir together, cover and marinade for 30 minutes (or up to a couple of hours – place in the refrigerator if marinating for more than 30 minutes).8 boneless chicken thighs, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine, ¼ tsp white pepper, 2 tbsp cornflour
- Heat the oil (reserving 1 tbsp for later) over a medium-high heat in a large frying pan.240 ml (1 cup) sunflower oil
- Add the chicken, a piece at a time (you may need to work in 2 batches), and cook for 4-5 minutes, turning a couple of times, until golden.
- Remove from the pan and place on a plate.
- Heat the reserved 1 tbsp of sunflower oil along with 1 tbsp of sesame oil in a wok over a medium-high heat.1 tbsp sesame oil
- Add the onion and dried chillies and stir fry for 2-3 minutes, stirring often, until the onion starts to soften slightly.1 onion, 25 dried red chillies
- Add in the ground Sichuan peppers and fry for a further minute.1 1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
- Add in the garlic, ginger, and spring onions and stir fry for a further 30 seconds.3 cloves garlic, 2 tsp minced ginger, 5 spring onions
- Add in the soy sauce, rice wine, chilli bean paste, and sugar. Stir together and fry for another minute.2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine, 1 tbsp chilli bean paste, 1 tbsp sugar
- Add in the cooked chicken and toss everything together, heating for a further minute or two until the chicken is hot.
- Serve with boiled rice.
Video
Notes
I’ve accounted for 60ml (1/4 cup) of oil being absorbed during the cooking process.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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My husband a I loved this recipe. I was worried with the amount of chili peppers but they ended up milder than I had expected and the chicken removed some of the heat. Thank you!
Thank you for embedding the ingredient amounts in the instructions! It is so very helpful, and saves scrolling up and down constantly.
It smells great, just waiting for the rice to cook before cooking the chicken.
Tonight, i made this verbatim. It was delicious and one of the best meals I’ve done.
Thank you
A very long time ago I bought a book on Szechuan cooking written by an American who lived there. Sadly I can’t find it anymore. His recipe started like this …..
Peel the skin off an orange and shave off all the white pith. Cut into pieces and immerse in warm water for 15 minutes to soften.
Heat some oil very high in a wok and toss in the pieces of orange skin and a couple of dried chillis. Once the pan contents are well frazzled remove the wok and remove them.
Put the wok back on a medium heat and proceed to stir fry your chicken.
And so on.
I was absolutely blown away by the way the orange and chicken flavoured the oil and was now penetrating the chicken.
This was so wonderful! The only thing I didn’t have on hand was rice wine. I used sake instead. It still came out delicious! I sprinkled some sesame seeds on tops for extra curb appeal. I love spicy food, so this is a winner because I can dial it up when I’m eating alone and dial it down when I have guests. (I might even used frozen battered chicken if I find myself in a pinch.)
Delicious and authentic to restaurant style taste. I did not fry the chicken with the amount of oil suggested, I reduced it to 2-3 tbsp and it was perfect.
Could this all with the exception of frying the chicken be cooked on a Blackstone?
Amazing
Absolutely yummy, cooked last weekend and going to cook again this week-end.
Looks great… can’t wait to try.