Sichuan peppercorn chicken (藤椒鸡). This is a dish for all real Sichuan food lovers especially for those who loves the numbing feeling of Sichuan peppercorn. It is the harvesting season of Sichuan peppercorn recently. We have on Sichuan peppercorn tree in the backyard so this is a customized recipe for this season. In other seasons when fresh peppercorn are not available, use dried green peppercorns.
Possibly I need to introduce Sichuan Peppercorn a little bit more. Sichuan peppercorn(花椒huajiao In Chinese) sometimes also short as Sichuan pepper or Szechuan pepper, is one of the traditional Chinese medicines. It can help to create a numb feeling of your tongue. If you ever tried the Mala taste of Sichuan cuisine, then it is Sichuan peppercorn that brings the ma taste. Taste of green peppercorn is quite different from commonly used red ones.
Although this sounds similar to mala chicken, hot and numbing, this one is totally different. It is very fresh, strong but not so profound! I highly recommend you trying once. This is summer great for summer. 
Instructions
Cook the chicken| In a large pot, add scallion, ginger, Sichuan peppercorn and water. Heat to a boiling, let it simmer for 5 minutes and then turn off fire and stand for 10 minutes. Remember to remove the foams after boiling.Once the meat can be insert through, it is just cooked.
Place the chicken leg in iced water
Cut into large pieces. And transfer chicken to serving plate with smashed cucumber. At the same time, scoop around 1 cup of chicken stock to cool down.
Make the sauce|Heat around 2 tablespoons of vegetable cooking in a small pot, add garlic, ginger and scallion until aromatic.
Place red Sichuan peppercorn and green Sichuan peppercorn in.
Place fresh peppers in. Slightly heat for a while. Turn off fire, add white pepper, chicken stock (cooled), light soy sauce, oyster sauce and salt. The sauce should be slightly salty than common dishes.
Pour sauce in. Let them soak 30 minutes. 
- 2 chicken legs
- 1 thumb ginger
- 2 scallion
- 1 tsp. Sichuan peppercorn
- 1 tbsp. Shaoxing wine
- 2 tbsp. Sichuan green peppercorn
- 1 tbsp. red sichuan peppercorn
- 3 long fresh chili pepper , cut into small sections
- 3 long red chili pepper , cut into small sections
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 cucumber , peeled and smashed
- 1 small bunch of coriander
- 1/4 tsp. ground pepper
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Cook the chicken| In a large pot, add scallion, ginger, Sichuan peppercorn and water. Heat to a boiling, let it simmer for 5 minutes and then turn off fire and stand for 10 minutes. Remember to remove the foams after boiling.Once the meat can be insert through, it is just cooked. Place the chicken leg in iced water
-
Cut into large pieces. And transfer chicken to serving plate with smashed cucumber. At the same time, scoop around 1 cup of chicken stock to cool down.
-
Make the sauce|Heat around 2 tablespoons of vegetable cooking in a small pot, add garlic, ginger and scallion until aromatic.
-
Place red Sichuan peppercorn and green Sichuan peppercorn in.
-
Place fresh peppers in. Slightly heat for a while. Turn off fire, add white pepper, chicken stock (cooled), light soy sauce, oyster sauce and salt. Pour sauce in. Let them soak 30 minutes before eating.
If you are using dried Sichuan peppercorn, soak them with warm water around 20 minutes before cooking.
You make the chicken look so attractive on the photos! I love Asian-inspired foods! Those green peppercorns are so fresh – I’ve never seen anything like that before!
Julia,
Thanks for commenting. Those little green peppercorns are only available from Sichuan area even in China. really special and taste really good. I really hope that you will have a chance to taste it.
I did tried this recipe and taste too salty. I have to use vinegar as dipping sauce to remove some saltiness. I will try it again and try it only 1 tsp but I believe that this is a good recipe.
Thanks.
Hi Joey,
Thanks for the feedback and suggestion. I will update the recipe for a better result. Happy cooking ahead.
I just tried this with all the ingredients – apart from the cooking wine and starch part. It tastes mostly great, very simple. However, I added two tablespoons of sichuan pepper but the dish is so overloaded with them to the point where I can’t eat it!
For comparison, I ate in the best Chinese restaurant in our capital city here – where the Chinese ambassador goes to eat – and had sichuan pepper beef. It was more a case of there being a few sichuan peppers and a lot of chilli, rather than every mouthful containing several peppercorns -this is way too much as it’s a really dominant flavour. Thanks for the other great tips though, all the best.
Hi Meeps,
The dish with a lot of chili pepper but just a little sichuan peppercorn is called Chongqing Chicken, a different dish from this one. You can check it here https://chinasichuanfood.com/mala-chicken/. This one is featured by the large amount of Sichuan peppercorn used in this recipe. I hope you can try the Chongqing chicken version next time.
Do you eat the Sichuan peppercorns or are they mainly used to flavor the sauce?
They are only for flavoring. There are lots of Sichuan dishes using large amount of pepper and Sichuan peppercorn. All the seasonings are just for adding flavors.
Thanks for sharing! My bf and I made this tonight and it was amazing!! We used the dried red peppercorns with soaking
Nice all chinese food
HI Elaine, why we need to soak the dried Sichuan peppercorn in warm water for 10 minutes to replace the fresh one in your recipe, thanks!
cheers
Lisa Liu
Soaking dried Sichuan peppercorn can create a similar flavor of fresh peppercorn.
Hallo. Do yo have another receipt using shicuan papper? Tx
Daniel,
You can browse recipes under Sichuan cuisine, in this category, most recipes call for Sichuan peppercorn.
From your Ingredients, 1 round red pepper is on the list.
It make me confuse.
But, judging from pictures, is it means red paprika?
I know paprika is called pepper as well as paprika.
But, many kind of peppers being used in Schichuan dishes.
Anyway , I enjoy your recipe.
I say thank you
Do you use the whole peppercorn? Are do.you just use the huals? I have dried red peppercorns.
Thank you for your help.
Virgie Cousins
Virgie,
I use whole Sichuan peppercorns. They are not for eating, just for flavoring.