Chinese Poached Chicken Thighs in 2 Styles – Szechuan and Cantonese Sauce
Having been born and raised in Guangzhou, I can say that I grew up with Chinese Poached Chicken. It is the most classic dish in Guangzhou and it’s always on the dinner table when there is a family gathering.
Chinese Poached Chicken in 2 Styles
Traditionally Cantonese poached chicken is made of a whole chicken and is cut into small pieces to serve. Poached chicken in Cantonese is called Bai Qie Ji which means the chicken is boiled in water and cut to serve. In the Cantonese style, poached chicken is served with savory ginger scallion sauce on the side. It is my all-time favorite.
But as I grew up, I also fell in love with Szechuan cuisine. It’s spicy, aromatic, mouth-watering. And I wonder if Poached Chicken would taste good with Szechuan sauce instead of ginger scallion sauce.
Well, I can tell you, both styles are amazingly delicious. So I decided to share the recipe with you so that you could tell me which style tastes better!
Easy Way to Make Poached Chicken
After living in the US for years, I found out that people here are not used to chewing around bones, let alone a whole chicken. Like my wife, it’s not always easy to introduce authentic Chinese food to her. For instance, in Chinese Steamed Fish, I found out that making it with fish fillet is more acceptable for her compared to a whole fish. Therefore, I decided to find my way to adapt the poached chicken recipe to western eating habits.
Use Chicken Thighs
To make this poached chicken cater to the American taste, I used boneless chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken. Cooking with boneless chicken thighs preserves the bouncy and moist texture of the traditional poached chicken and it saves the headache of eating around bones.
How to Make Chinese Poached Chicken with Two Sauces
Surprisingly, it’s so much easier to make Chinese poached chicken using chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken. Since chicken thighs are smaller, it’s easy to know when they are cooked. While cooking a whole chicken could be challenging to cook through.
Step 1: Poach Chicken
Fill cold water in a pot, put in 2 pieces of chicken thighs and 2-3 ginger slices, and 2 stalks of scallion. If you like, add some Szechuan peppercorn, it will give the chicken a special aroma. Bring it to boil with the lid on for ten minutes then turn off the heat. After turning off the heat, do not take off the lid yet. Let the chicken thighs sit in the soup for two more minutes.
This step is not difficult but remember to put the chicken, ginger, and scallion in the pot when the water is cold. Then bring to boil.
Step 2: Cool down the chicken
Prepare a bowl of iced water, take the chicken thighs out of the pot. Give them a cold bath in the iced water for 20 -40 minutes, until completely cool.
This step can make the chicken thighs firm to the bite. When the hot chicken jumps into the iced water, the muscle would contract and gets tight.
Step 3: Make the Sauce
While the chicken thigh is soaking in iced water, let’s make the sauce. Depending on your choice, you could make the Szechuan spicy sauce or the Cantonese ginger and scallion sauce to serve with poached chicken.
For Spicy Szechuan Sauce: In a heatproof bowl, put Szechuan peppercorn, minced garlic, scallion rings, cilantro, Thai chilies, Szechuan dried chilies, red pepper flakes together. Heat up peanut oil or canola oil with Szechuan peppercorn in a saucepan, pour the hot oil into the bowl to cook the sauce ingredients.
Then mix the sauce with soy sauce and balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of the leftover chicken broth.
For Ginger Scallion Sauce: Similarly, put scallions and grated ginger in a bowl with salt and sugar. Heat up cooking oil in a saucepan until it’s almost smoking. Pour the hot oil straight into the bowl. It will quickly bring out the mouthwatering aroma of the ginger and scallion.
Step 4: Serve
Take the chicken thighs out of cold water. Cut chicken thighs into bite-size slices and place them on a plate. Drizzle the sauce over the chicken. For the Szechuan-style chicken, sprinkle some crushed peanut on top!
What to Serve with Chinese Poached Chicken
Nothing else is better than eating Poached Chicken with a bowl of warm rice. You could place the chicken thighs on top of a bed of rice and drizzle sauce over it.
Pair it with vegetables of your choice. I love bok choy so I usually reuse the chicken broth (the water that we used to poach chicken) to poach the bok choy. The bok choy can soak in all the essence of the chicken. It’s so convenient and yummy!
Recipe
Chinese Poached Chicken in 2 Styles
Ingredients
Poached Chicken
- 2 pieces Boneless chicken thigh
- 2 slices ginger
- 2 stalks scallion
Spicy Szechuan Sauce
- 1 tsp Szechuan peppercorn
- 4 clove Garlic
- 1 tbsp Grated ginger
- 1/2 tbsp chopped scallion
- 1 tbsp Cilantro
- 3 Thai Chilies
- 3 Szechuan dried chilies
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1/2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup cooking oil
- 1 tsp crushed peanut
Ginger Scallion Sauce
- 2 tbsp Jullien/grated Ginger
- 2 tbsp chopped scallions
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- 1/4 cup cooking oil
Instructions
- Fill cold water in a pot, put in 2 pieces of chicken thighs and 2-3 ginger slices, and 2 stalks of scallion.
- Bring it to boil with the lid on for ten minutes then turn off the heat.
- After turning off the heat, do not take off the lid, let the chicken thighs sit in the soup for two more minutes.
- Prepare a bowl of iced water, take the chicken thighs out of the pot. Give them a cold bath in the ice water for 20 -40 minutes, until completely cool.
- While the chicken thigh is soaking in iced water, make the sauce.
Spicy Szechuan Sauce
- In a heatproof bowl, put Szechuan peppercorn, minced garlic, scallion rings, cilantro, Thai chilies, Szechuan dried chilies, red pepper flakes together.
- Heat up peanut oil or canola oil with Szechuan peppercorn in a saucepan. Mix the sauce with soy sauce and balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of the leftover chicken broth.
Ginger Scallion Sauce
- Put scallions and grated ginger in a bowl with salt and sugar.
- Heat up cooking oil in a saucepan until it’s almost smoking. Pour the hot oil straight to the bowl.
- Take the chicken thighs out of cold water. Cut chicken thighs into bite-size slices and place them on a plate.
- Drizzle the sauce over the chicken. (add crushed peanut on top to the Szechuan style one!)
Let me know if you like my recipe! Leave a comment below if you are ready to try this out!
Do you want more delicious and easy recipes like this? Go grab my cookbook!
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