Sichuan Steamed Chicken in Chili Sauce Recipe

This dish (kǒu shuǐ jī) literally translates to “saliva chicken” in English. As the Chinese word’s appetizing connotation is lost in translation, this dish is usually translated figuratively to “mouth-watering chicken” or  “steamed chicken with chili sauce” in English.

Classified as a cold dish in Sichuan cuisine, this cold chicken dish is enriched with multiple seasoning condiments, tasting spicy, fresh, fragrant, and tender all at the same time.  

The name of the dish actually came from a literary piece called “Tianbo Qu (賟波曲)” written by a renowned Chinese author, Guo Moruo, in the early 20th century. He wrote in the piece: “Till this day, I still can’t stop drooling for the dish every time it crosses my mind, the dish that I always ate when I was a child at my hometown in Sichuan, the boiled soft chicken meat infused with the fragrance of homemade red chili oil.” Written with unintentional care by Guo, the word “saliva” was surprisingly favored by people when describing this dish. As time went by, this Sichuan dish was referred “formally” by many restaurants as “Saliva chicken”, and was known today to be a common home cooking dish in Sichuan.

Recipe Notes:

Before hot chiles were brought to China from the New World, peppercorns were used to give a mild heat to dishes. As the availability of blind, raw hellfire spice increased in China, it actually increased the usage of the numbing Sichuan peppercorns as a balancing element, which allows you to appreciate the flavor of the chili. Because of this, having a delicious chili full of actual flavor, color, and aroma, becomes paramount- and it’s what we’ve included in our boxes. The rise and prominence of chili and Sichuan peppercorns in the imagination and practice of Sichuan cuisine are relatively recent and also should be viewed hand-in-hand.

The spiciness from the Americas first comes overseas to Europe, then make their way overland into the heart of China via the Silk Road in the form of dried chilis. Sichuan peppercorns played perfectly with chili, balancing out the heat with its numbing qualities. Together this created the intense mala flavoring, one of the three Chinese spicy flavorings and perhaps the most famous. 

With this box, we have included popular selections, the exact variants of chili and Sichuan peppercorn widely used in the Sichuan province. They aren’t dull or without aroma, like generic supermarket chili flakes. A teaspoon or half a teaspoon will go a long way for 1.2kg/2.5kg of chicken. You’ll learn to make mala flavors in its endless variations, experimenting with finishing oils and sautéed sauces, to see how chili as a flavor can be layered and nuanced in Sichuan cuisine.