Sunday Gravy with yeah right: A Trip to Taiwan! San Bei Ji!

Well, hello there!

Glad to see everyone back on the Sunday Gravy train.

How did your NFL team do in the draft?

That shitty huh?

Well, fuck. Sorry about that. Just think, in a little over 4 months we are back to live-ass NFL awesomeness and then your team will suck and then you have to wait until the FOLLOWING April to try and improve in the draft again.

It really is a vicious cycle. That could also be entirely my singular opinion since I’m a Vikings fan.

Anyway.

Nice to see everyone. 

Spring going OK for everyone? Yeah. Me too. No massive complaints.

Got a real fun menu for you today and an absolute “Bookmark this fucking page” keeper of a meal.

We are going to make San Bei Ji, also known as “Three Cup Chicken.” It’s a typical southern Chinese and Taiwanese dish that features sesame oil and two different types of soy sauce. The “Three Cup” part is due to the original recipe using 1 cup of soy, 1 cup of rice wine and one cup of sesame oil each.

That’s a bit extreme so it’s been tweaked over the years and we will be adapting it today as well.

Inspiration is a term frequently batted around here on Sunday Gravy and I returned to a familiar source of that inspiration for this very menu.

This one is inspired once again by our good friends at Universal Yums.

As per usual just inside the front cover on page 3 of the Yum guidebook, they provide a featured recipe for the country represented in the Yum box.

We’ve used the Yums folks for inspiration a few times in the past.

Remember last year when we made Kulajda!

And the year before that we used the Yums recipe for this.

Soondubu!

And the year BEFORE THAT when we made Tortilla Española.

This is all a very picturesque and long-winded way of saying that the recipes inside of the Yums guidebook are fucking legit.

We’ll demonstrate that today.

Did you get this Yum Box?

This was quite the tasty box indeed. Funny thing is, I don’t remember the snacks from this Yums box since it was almost a year ago when I received it. I do remember seeing this recipe and saving it to be used for this season of Sunday Gravy, and well? Here we fucking are.

Even though the recipe is clearly outlined in the guidebook I always research more than a single source, Like every recipe on Sunday Gravy.

I read about 5 different versions of San Bei Ji and kind of settled on a mish-mash from all of them.

The guidebook was the leading inspiration but I also used ideas for this recipe from The Woksoflife.com.

SAN BEI JI!

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon peanut oil

2 inch piece of ginger – minced

5 cloves garlic – minced 

1 dried chili de arbol cut in half

2-3 pounds of chicken*

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup shaoxing wine

2-5 teaspoons dark soy sauce – I used 4 teaspoons

1 1/2 tablespoons light soy sauce

2 teaspoons brown sugar

Small bunch of Thai basil leaves or 2 scallions

*Most of the recipes called for chunks of boneless/skinless chicken thighs, which was okey-dokey with me but some wings would be fucking outstanding in this dish.

We begin!

My store didn’t have boneless/skinless thighs so I went with the bone-in version.

This led to an interesting quandary since the thighs were supposed to be cut into cubes and how the fuck are we going to do that with a big-ass bone in each one?

Since the dish is supposed to be a quick prep and these fat as fuck thighs wouldn’t be cooked properly stir frying in a wok I settled on an initial pre-cook.

Rinse and dry the thighs and put in a lubed baking vessel. Season simply with some salt and pepper.

Both sides..

These will go into a pre-heated 350 degree oven for an initial cook of 17 minutes with the skin side down. That will be followed by flipping the chicken over, skin side up, and then a second cook of 20 minutes.

When they are pre-cooked they will look like this.

Get after that ginger next. Yes indeed peeling ginger is a pain in the goddamn ass but the end results are worth the effort. Plus the aroma is always enticing.

Give it a mince.

We follow that by mincing the shit out of the garlic.

Here are the 2 new players you may not be as familiar with.

That’s our shaoxing wine and the dark soy sauce. Dark soy sauce is very different from standard – or light soy sauce. It’s a little denser in viscosity and it’s a whole lot darker in color. Got a little more of the dankness about it too. The shaoxing wine is very similar to a cooking sherry, which could definitely be used as a substitute.

Next we create the mysterious witches brew that will be our sauce for the dish. That would include the water, shaoxing wine, light and dark soy and the sugar. Set it aside for a moment.

Let’s get going with the stir fry action.

Put the sesame oil and the peanut oil into your skillet or wok and get that over a medium heat.

The above recipe was adapted after I made this dish. The recipe called for THREE tablespoons of oil, one sesame and 2 vegetable oil. I will say that the dish only needs two tablespoons of oil PERIOD. The third was a bit excessive.

Now in goes the garlic, ginger and dried chilies to help season the oil.

A few minutes and they will toast and impart flavor to the oil and great gawd-a-mighty does it smell fantastic. You will indeed draw the attention of EVERY person in the place.

Just infuse the oils for a few minutes. We don’t want to burn that garlic.

Next we add the chicken.

Yes, this would have been a hell of a lot easier with chicken chunks but we’re working with what we had.

Cook for about 4-5 minutes then give it a turn.

See? I knew this would work. Dump that witches brew all over the chicken and make sure it gets well coated. Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes while frequently turning the chicken.

A few minutes more then flip that chicken again.

See it start to get a nice rich mahogany color? That’s what we’re after.

Time to increase the heat under the skillet to help the brown sugar thicken into a glaze. Move the chicken around fairly continuously so the sugar doesn’t burn.

When the chicken is coated with sauce, turn off the heat and add in the Thai basil or scallions.*

Initial accompaniment to this dish would logically call for rice wouldn’t it? I like rice just fine but we just had rice a couple of weeks ago when we made the cod filets with pesto.

Thinking I would change the pace up a bit I decided to use udon noodles instead of rice. You can find fresh udon noodles in the refrigerated section of your grocery store. If your store has refrigerated tofu you can find the udon right nearby.

The udon packages are set-up like your basic ramen package with the inclusion of the little spice packet and everything. The only difference being these noodles are cooked and fresh.

The noodles only need a couple of minutes in hot water to prepare. I used two packages of noodles and only half of one seasoning packet for both packages of noodles. That shit is a sodium bomb.

I also decided to grab some store bought eggrolls for a side because why the fuck not? Who doesn’t like an egg roll?

Plate that business up, Son!

Noodles down, chicken and sauce go over the top then grab your ass an eggroll or two.

When ready we have this beauty.

*please note the distinct lack of scallions. Shit man, I forget stuff too.

Oh baby is this stuff amazing! That sauce can be slathered on about anything and it would be good. Strong notes of soy, garlic, ginger and sesame are present and accounted for. Both types of soy ring through. That dark soy is going to get another whirl I can goddamn guarantee you! 

But that chicken thigh? Holy shit! It was cooked PERFECTLY. Still moist, juicy and tender. Yowza!

The noodles were a perfect call and they soaked up that rich, spicy, tangy sauce just beautifully.

Dammit I want more of this right now!

This is a simple meal that could easily be made as a week night meal. You can also use your choice of protein. Like the aforementioned chicken wings.

Give this bastard a try for sure.

And that’s a wrap for today.

I appreciate you stopping by again.

Tons of playoff action in the NBA and NHL and the full baseball schedule and all of that so you’ve got lots of viewing options today.

You’ll be able to see your shiny newly drafted NFL players in the rookie development programs in just a couple of weeks, then you can nervously watch and hope that none of them tear their ACL or break a fucking leg or something.

They’re so fragile at that age.

Enjoy your Sunday and I’ll see you back here next week.

PEACE!