This is the newly tested Sha cha chicken or more accurately braised chicken with Sha Cha sauce. Beside sha cha chicken, sha cha beef is another representative.
What’s Sha Cha Sauce
Sha cha sauce (沙茶酱) is a combined sauce from ChaoZhou area in Guangdong, China. With a savory and a slightly spicy taste, it has been widely used in Fujian cusine, Teochew cuisine and Taiwan area.
My first meating with Sha Cha sauce is on a Teochew beef hot pot table. I love the taste of sha cha sauce with tender beef slices. After tried with different restaurants, I find that they have their unique Sha Cha sauce recipes and flavors. In general, Sha Cha sauce is made from soybean oil, garlic, shallots, chilies, brill fish and dried shrimp. But different portions create slightly different flavors. I believe Szechuan style chili oil shares the same features. Returning home, I am always trying to find the best Sha cha product. Among all the brands, Bull head from Taiwan wins my heart and has been stored in my kitchen cabinet around the year.
Comparing with sha cha beef, I add more juice in this sha cha chicken and make it even better for steamed rice or other plain staple food.
Cook’s Note
Sha cha sauce is quite salty itself, so I do not list salt in the recipe. You can taste it before the last transformation and see whether a tiny pinch of salt is needed.
Ingredients
- 2 boneless chicken legs or 1 chicken breast, cut into thin slices
- coriander as needed
- 2 tbsp. cooking oil
Marinating
- 1 tsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. cooking wine
- 2 tsp. cornstarch
- 2 tsp. water
Stir frying
- 1/4 red onion
- 2 green peppers (both bell and spicy pepper work fine)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 and 1/2 tbsp. sha cha sauce
- 1/2 cup stock or water
Instruction
Slice chicken and then marinating with soy sauce, cooking wine and water starch. Set aside for around 15 minutes.
Heat your cook firstly, then around 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a non-stick pan or wok. Place chicken in when the oil is warm but not hot. Let the chicken stay for 3-5 seconds and gently stir fry the chicken until the the chicken slices turns pale. Transfer out.
Leave some oil in and fry garlic until aromatic. Place sha cha sauce in and add water. Bring everything to a boiling and then place chicken, chili peppers and red onion. Simmer for 1 minute and serve with steamed rice.
- 2 boneless chicken legs or 1 chicken breast , cut into thin slices
- coriander as needed
- 2 tbsp. cooking oil
- 1 tsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. cooking wine
- 2 tsp. cornstarch
- 2 tsp. water
- 1/4 red onion
- 2 green peppers , both bell and spicy pepper work fine
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1.5 tbsp. sha cha sauce
- 1/2 cup stock or water
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Slice chicken and then marinating with soy sauce, cooking wine and water starch. Set aside for around 15 minutes.
-
Heat your cook firstly, then around 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a non-stick pan or wok. Place chicken in when the oil is warm but not hot. Let the chicken stay for 3-5 seconds and gently stir fry the chicken until the the chicken slices turns pale. Transfer out.
-
Leave some oil in and fry garlic until aromatic. Place sha cha sauce in and add water. Bring everything to a boiling and then place chicken, chili peppers and red onion. Simmer for 1 minute and serve with steamed rice.
- I love the chicken to be a little bit spicy. So you can spare red pepper or chose round red pepper.
- Crystal sugar added at end is for the color. This step is optional.
- Since Sha cha sauce contains some amount of salt, so do spare the salt added additionally.
It looks so delicious
Hi Elaine,
I got the Bullhead BBQ Sauce and tried this. While it was a nice dish and didn’t taste bad at all I felt something was wrong. There was a very slight taste of something like old fat or fish from muddy water. I can’t exactly describe it.
Mind you, it was in no way bad and maybe it’s just didn’t fit my taste as perfectly as the other recipes I found on your site.
But thank you anyways, I had seen the sauce for a while at the store and wondered what it would be used for. I’ll try the Sha cha beef anyhow, maybe to my taste it was just to strong for chicken.
Haha, Andreas. I love that funny description : old fat fish from muddy water. Just forget about the sauce. I believe you do not like its taste.
You know Elaine, I just now looked up the ingredients and was surprised it actually contained fish (and dried shrimps). I totally didn’t expect that – but I see now, that you explained it on the other page using that sauce. I thought it was some soybean based sauce and wondered about the strange taste 🙂
As I love for example Vietnamese Thịt bò xào, I think I will try the beef anyhow. I won’t get smarter if I don’t and my grandma used to say you shouldn’t throw food away. I can still decide that it’s not my favorite afterwards.
After all cooking is supposed to be adventurous and I thank you for being my guide in the strange lands of Chinese recipes 😉
Andreas,
Dried shrimp and fish are the key ingredients to Sha Cha Sauce. So you feel it tastes like old fish. Yes, it may work better with beef.
Hi Elaine,
I just wanted to let you know, I don’t dislike the Sha Cha sauce any more 🙂 I found a recipe on a youtube channel (我是马小坏) which uses pork belly and fried gluten balls and I really liked the sauce with that. I guess anything tastes pleasant with pork bellly 🙂 So thank you very much for introducing this ingredient to me, I’d never tried it otherwise.
One day, when I fully understand how it’s taste works in a recipe I’ll try this one again.
what is the alternative of sha cha sauce?