Neil Perry

Steamed Chicken with Black Beans & Chopped Salted Chillies

Preparation info

    • Difficulty

      Easy

Appears in

top 1000Balance and Harmony: Asian Food

Balance and Harmony

By Neil Perry

Published 2008

  • About

This easy self-saucing dish has plenty of fire from the chopped salted chillies. You could also just use fresh chillies and the dish would still be great, but the chopped salted ones add another level of complexity. This simple Sichuan-style steaming really suits fish as well ā€” try a blue eye trevalla or bar cod.

Ingredients

  • 3 free-range or organic chicken legs, chopped through the bone into bite-sized pieces
  • 2 tablespoons chopped salted chillies
  • 1 tablespoon fermented black beans
  • 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon shaoxing
  • Ā½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 125 ml (4 fl oz/Ā¾ cup) fresh chicken stock
  • 1 spring onion (scallion), cut into julienne

    Method

    Blanch the chicken for 1 minute in boiling water, then remove, rinse and dry well. This is important to stop the sauce getting protein scum in it.

    Mix together the chicken, ginger, garlic, shaoxing, chillies, black beans, sea salt, soy sauce, sugar and chicken stock in a heatproof bowl that fits into your steamer.

    Place the bowl in a large steamer over a pot or a wok of boiling water, place the lid on the steamer and cook over high heat for 30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

    Spoon the chicken and sauce into a large serving bowl or serve straight from the steamer. Sprinkle with spring onion to finish.