When travel isn’t possible, you can still experience the best a country has to offer through its cuisine. Skyscanner has collaborated with chefs, restaurants, brands and passionate home cooks from around the world to bring you a series of recipes you can make from your very own kitchen.
Contributors
Josh Lim and Royston Low, Managers of Big La! Small La!, Singapore
Both of us are huge Mala lovers. We want to redefine how Mala Hotpot is served. Gone are the days when Mala has to be oily and tasteless! Using our homemade Mala sauce, we serve healthy bowls of Mala that do not compromise on taste. That is how Big La! Small La! came about.
A popular dish that accompanies Mala is Chongqing chicken or commonly known as “La Zi Ji” in Mandarin. It is a simple dish that anyone can whip up at home for a numbingly spicy and fragrant Chongqing chicken!
Ingredients
Protein
- 300g diced chicken cubes
Chicken marinade
- 1 tsp salt
- 1.5 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp huadiao cooking wine
- 1.5 tsp white pepper
For frying
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp corn flour
For stir-frying
- 30g ginger
- 20g garlic
- 20g shallot
- 50g dried chilli
- 30g dried lantern chilli (optional)
- 30g green sichuan peppercorns
- 5g red peppercorn oil
- 10g sesame oil
Instructions
- Prepare 300g diced chicken cubes (smaller size for crispier bites)
- Marinade chicken cubes with salt, dark soy sauce, huadiao cooking wine, and white pepper.
- Set aside finely chopped ginger, shallot, garlic, dried chillies, green Sichuan peppercorns in a bowl.
- In a deep frying pan, heat oil to 210 degrees Celsius, coat chicken with egg yolk and corn flour and proceed to fry for 1 minute and strain.
- Continue to heat oil to 240 degrees and proceed to second fry chicken for 30 seconds (this allows for a crispier and less greasy finish) and set aside.
- In a shallow pan, add oil and fry green peppercorns, ginger, garlic, shallots and dried chillies on medium low heat for 30 seconds. Toss in fried chicken cubes and stir fry for 2 minutes to allow fragrance and heat to incorporate.
- Final touch, season to taste with salt, sugar, red peppercorn oil (for that extra numbing sensation) and sesame oil.
