Hot-and-Sour Chicken

Shaanxi is perhaps less known for its culinary excellence than for the discovery of those spectacular terracotta soldiers from its capital Xi’an, which was China’s former capital. It borrows many of its cooking concepts, such as the dry-frying used here, from its southern neighbour Sichuan and Hubei to the east. The technique of dry-frying uses very little oil or liquid, giving the chicken and vegetables a crisp, almost pickled flavour.