Learn how to make crispy, hot, and numbing Chongqing-style dry-fried mala chicken with dried chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorn. It has a very distinctive local name – Laziji, meaning hot pepper chicken. It is acceptable hot and full of strong aroma bought by the peppers and aromatics. One of the best choices for a beer party.
Where it comes from
Chongqing Mala Chicken usually refers to Chongqing chicken with chili peppers and a spicy taste) and Sichuan peppercorns (numb feeling ). In Chinese, we call the dish Laziji, which mainly means dried chili pepper chicken. Some restaurants may call it Chongqing Chicken since it is thought to be quite popular in the Geleshan (歌乐山) area in the city of Chongqing. Although this one is less famous outside of Sichuan, it is considered even better than Kung Pao chicken by many Szechuan people.
Rule No.1 – Don’t eat the peppers
There is a lovely description of the dish saying that you need to find chicken among chili peppers, which shows people’s love toward those savory chicken cubes and also how many chili peppers will be used in this dish. That’s 100% true in restaurant versions. For homemade mala chicken, I adjust the number of chili peppers so that we do not need to work so hard to find the meat. It gets another lovely name in my family called “mangrove forest”. In general, this dish is a dry fried dish. Dry-frying is a unique cooking method from Sichuan cuisine. Higher oil temperature helps to remove the extra water content inside the chicken, which further allows the mala flavor to permeate better. This is a very popular Sichuan-style cooking method and there are a group of dishes that share the same theory including dry-fried beef shreds and dry-fried green beans with minced pork.
How to prepare the chicken
We usually use chicken thighs for this dish because of the higher muscle content. Chicken breast is not recommended. In China, we usually cut the whole chicken into small chunks and cook it with bones. So it is ok to cut the thighs into small bites directly. But it is also quite caring to remove the bones for your guest.
How to remove the bones of a chicken thigh:
- Prepare a kitchen scissor, find the loose side of the chicken thigh, and cut it apart.
- Then cut all the other connections on the bottom of the chicken thigh.
- Hold the thigh with one hand and then push all the meat down. And then use scissors to cut the left meat on the bone.
Some tips for controlling the spicy taste
- Cut only part of the dried peppers into sections and keep the remaining as whole ones. Or you can use milder peppers directly. Remove the seeds after cutting the dried peppers apart
- Soak the peppers with water and then fry them over a slow fire for a short time can greatly reduce the natural spiciness, improve the aroma, and of course avoid burning them in the following steps.
Can I use less chili pepper?
You may wonder whether you can reduce the number of chili peppers when seeing this dish from the picture. Absolutely yes! I am reproducing the authentic Chongqing-style mala chicken, so a large number of peppers are needed. You can reduce the hot peppers and use only 15 to 20 dried peppers. Reducing the number of chili peppers will not influence the taste very much, but it can save lots of money if dried peppers are quite expensive. So sounds like a good idea definitely. But as a good blogger, I am trying to introduce the authentic version and this is the real version.
Ingredients
Chicken thighs – you can also use a whole chicken, and cut it into small bites.
Cooking oil for shallow frying- I love to use the shallow frying method instead of pan-frying in home cooking because it saves more oil. But you need to cook the meat by batches.
Dried chili peppers – you can use your familiar type. Just make sure this type is aromatic enough.
Sichuan peppercorns – whole Sichuan peppercorns are used to create this lovely “ma” numbing feeling for your tongue.
Garlic, ginger, and scallion – this three are always popular in Sichuan dishes.
Sugar and salt – the foundation of a savory dish.
Rice wine – for marinating the chicken
White pepper powder – for marinating the chicken
Sesame seeds – enhance the flavor by providing extra aroma.
Light soy sauce – for marinating the chicken
Cornstarch– not for coating, only for tenderizing the chicken.
Steps
Cut the dried chili peppers and then soak the peppers in water for 15 minutes. We are doing this so we can fry the peppers later and prevent burning the peppers. This is a very traditional method used and I have imported this to my chili oil– using the power of water.
Remove the bone of the chicken thighs and then cut them into small cubes. In a large bowl, marinade the chicken cubes with all the marinating sauce. Mix well and set aside for around 10 minutes.
Heat up oil in a wok or pan for deep-frying. Heat until really hot (you can see bubbles when you put a chopstick in). Add the chicken cubes in and fry until golden brown. Transfer out. I recommend using a pan and frying the chicken in batches. On one side, it uses less oil and on the other side, the chicken is widely touched with the bottom of the pan, which can speed up the process greatly. After adding the chicken cubes, let it stay for a short time (possibly about 40 seconds to 1 minute) until one side is browned, and then slightly stir the chicken and fry the other side.
Get a clean wok and add only 1/2 tablespoon of oil and then fry the peppers for 1-2 minutes over the slowest fire until most of them become dark red. Add Sichuan peppercorn and continue frying for another 1 minute over the slowest fire.
Push the spices to one side and add 1/2 tablespoon of oil to the wok and fry ginger, scallion white, and garlic until aromatic.
Return the chicken cubes, and add roasted white sesame seeds, sugar, salt, and scallion green sections. Mix well and serve immediately.
What to serve with
When seeing this, you might already know that the best thing to match is beer. But the following are some of the dishes that may help to balance the flavors for your meal.
Smashed cucumber salad– the light version can make a good balance for the flavor.
Mango pudding – a sweet dessert that can comfort your tongue.
Wood ear mushroom salad – is another great dish that can match well with beer.
Amazing Chinese potato salad – my favorite way of making potatoes.
Mala Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 chicken thighs
- cook oil for frying
- 1.5 cup chili peppers
- 1.5 tbsp. Sichuan peppercorn
- 1 root ginger ,sliced
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 scallions ,white part and green part separated andcut into small sections
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. sesame seeds ,or as needed
- pinch of salt
Marinating
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. rice wine
- ¼ tsp. white pepper powder
- 2 tsp. cornstarch ,optional
- small pinch of salt
Instructions
- Cut the dried chili peppers, discard the seeds and then soak the peppers in water for 15 minutes. We are doing this so we can fry the peppers later and prevent burn the peppers.
- Remove the bone of the chicken thighs and then cut into small cubes. In a large bowl, marinade the chicken cubes with all the marinating sauce. Mix well and set aside for around 10 minutes.
- Heat up oil in wok or pan for deep-frying. Heat until really hot (you can see bubbles when you put a chopstick in). Add the chicken cubes in and fry until golden brown. Transfer out. I recommend using a pan and fry the chicken by batches. On one side, it uses less oil and on the other side, the chicken is widely touched with the bottom of the pan, which can speed up the process greatly. After add the chicken cubes, let it stay for a short time (possible about 40 seconds to 1 minute) until one side is browed and then slightly stir the chicken and fry the other side.
- Get a clean wok and add only 1/2 tablespoon of oil and then fry the peppers for 1-2 minutes over slowest fire until most of them becomes dark red. Add Sichuan peppercorn in and continue frying for another 1 minute over slowest fire.
- Push the spices to one side and add 1/2 tablespoon of oil in wok and fry ginger, scallion white and garlic until aromatic.
- Return the chicken cubes, add roasted white sesame seeds, sugar, salt and scallion green sections. Mix well and serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Very authentic dishes, I just love to cook them for my husband
Thanks Melle for stopping by and dropping me a note. Happy Cooking ahead.
You have a really nice website – real authentic food just like I found in China. Love the pictures too. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Matt for dropping me such a kind note. Happy cooking ahead.
Hey,
Its a very nice recipe. I made it and t tastes really good. But you have linked the mala chicken recipe on the Doubanjiang recipe. Does this recipe contains doubanjiang or not?
Best wishes
Hi Hoby,
No, Doubanjiang is not used in this recipe. I am just hoping to give some background information about Sichuan cuisine. Sorry for the misunderstanding. And thanks for your lovely feedback.
Hi Hoby,
No Doubanjiang is not used in this recipe. I was just giving some background information about Sichuan cuisine.
I’m a bit of a hothead when it comes to food and I recently found a pot of szechuan peppercorns at a wholesalers. Figured this would be right up my alley so I bought it. The taste of the things really surprised me – I was expecting something fiery but was instead treated to this exquisite lemony flavour followed by the predicted numbing of the mouth and a slightly excessive mouth watering.
I went looking for a dish that would nicely showcase this fantastic product and I found this recipe. Tried it this evening and… wow! Just wow! I never even expected a pepper could taste this well. This is SO going into the ‘repeat’ folder.
Things I did differently (please don’t hate me):
– I’m not big on frying stuff, so I just wokked the chicken cubes in I’d say 2 tablespoons of oil. Once it was nicely browned I took it out into a plate with some paper to soak in the oil. Needn’t have bothered with that since the chicken was oozing in juices and quite little of it was actual oil.
– I had some fresh rawit chillis that were in the process of drying which I used instead of outright dried chillis.
– The pan may have been too warm since when I put in the chillis the skin charred a little bit. So the image was slightly less lush than your photograph is.
– I may have used slightly more than 1 tablespoon of szechuan peppercorns. It surprised me how even that little amount managed to scatter itself around the pan that just about every bite I took managed to include a peppercorn. This stuff really goes a long way.
I’m now really looking forward to making my own 5-spices mix. The store-bought stuff uses regular peppercorns so you miss out on the numbing as well as that velvety lemony flavour and in return get mostly just harsh herby heat. I expect using the proper product will have quite an impact.
Thank you _so_ _much_ for publishing this recipe. My taste buds are still high-fiveing. If this recipe is anything to go by, I’ll be trying everything here. 🙂
Hi Tom,
You are very creative in kitchen. Yes cooking is all about personal preference and I am happy to know that you adjust the recipe accordingly. And the amount of Sichuan peppercorn is very sensitive because high quality Sichuan peppercorn really provide strong numbing feeling.
I make my own five spice too, a small amount once! I love the freshly grounded 5 spice. Last, happy cooking with your adventure in your kitchen and wish you good luck!
Elaine, thank you for this amazing recipe! It is the second we have tried from your website, all amazing and a pleasure to cook – your recipes and pictures are perfect. Thank you so much for sharing and for your work ???
Thank you Rosie.
A local Sichuan restaurant makes a very tasty version of mala chicken. The owner said that they include the ingredient “prickly ash bark” as well as Sichuan peppercorns. I can’t find much on the internet about it…it seems to be primarily marketed as a natural remedy. It’s always interesting to compare the many versions of these classic dishes!
Hi Charlie,
Sichuan peppercorn is a must for the Mala taste for the Ma parte and La is caused by chili pepper. For more information about this Chinese spice, you can check here https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/sichuan-pepper-introduction-and-sourcing-tips/.
Great recipe with great colors!
Thank You!
Hi,
First i would like to thank you for all your work and sharing all your knowledge.
Is it possible to explain more precisely how do you use dry chili peppers ? Cause i have some questions to master the strenght of them.
The first question is the most important : When you cut 1/3 of the chili do you keep the seeds ? How long do you put the chili pepper in water (pre-soak ? that’s right ?) ? is it cold water ? If you drain after pre-soak with the seeds, do you remove them after ? In the other recipes, when you write to use dry chili peppers, do use them full or cutted ? with seeds ?
Thank you very much.
Best regards,
Steph
Hi Steph,
They are really good questions.
For the first question: it really depends how spicy you want the food to be. I remove the seeds after cut the chili peppers. But it is ok to keep them for a stronger taste.
For soaking the peppers, warm water will be the best choice. But this step is not a must, just a tip to reduce the hotness.
In my other recipes in which I use just a small amount of dried chili peppers, I usually break them into several sections and keep the seeds.
Hope the above information helps. Happy cooking in coming 2016.
Thank you very much to take the time to answer. Let you know that your website is at the top of my list of recipe websites.I went in Sichuan last year to learn with a Chef for 3 days and i can find in your recipes the real taste of what i discover in China. I’m not a cook, i’m just a computer graphist in Paris who love eating and cooking.
Thank you for all again.
Keep going please, you’re the best.
Sorry for my french accent 🙂
Steph
Hello, Elaine!
Thank you for posting this recipe! I will try it soon. It reminds me of a dish I had last Fall in Beijing. The restaurant just called it Sichuan Chicken. It had many, many peppers and the peppercorns. I loved it. I wonder, do you eat all those peppers, or are they just to add flavor?
Thank you!
Hi Christopher,
We do not eat the peppers. They are just for flavoring. In my hometown, the chili pepper is quite cheap, much cheaper than meat and vegetables, as they are usually with a large volume. So restaurants usually use a larger amount and you need to find the meat curried by chili peppers.
Are these dried chili peppers or fresh?
Hi Al,
They are dried chili peppers.
Hi Elaine, I followed your instructions and they came out well.I was experimenting and will repeat it again.Thanks for sharing.
I’m glad you get it ?
Thanks Mary!
Glad you like it.