辣子鸡 (la zi ji) or Chilli Chick’un is a classic Sichuan dish. It is a popular 下酒菜 (xia jiu cai), a dish that you eat while drinking. Part of the fun is picking out the bits of protein between the chillies! I like to have this as a side when I have Chongqing Xiaomian Noodle (重庆小面) for maximum tongue torture.
Typically, the protein and chilli ratio should be about equal. But, of course, it depends on your spice tolerance and the type of chillies you are using. So you decide! I used Sichuan 朝天椒 (chao tian jiao) or facing heaven peppers (the English translation is so naff) which are approximately 50,000 – 100,000 SHU.
The seitan I use here is a product of the Philippines called Ve-G-Choplets. I used a whole can! You can use a different seitan or tofu instead. If you are using tofu, just make sure it is firm so it does not break into bits during the violent tossing process.
This dish looks the best when the protein is a darker brown. If you don’t want to fry for so long but still want to darken the colour of the protein, add some dark soy sauce to the marinade.
Ingredients
- Marinade