Gong Bao Chicken 宮保雞丁

Gong bao chicken (宮保雞丁, pronouced gong bao ji ding) also known as kung pao chicken, chicken with cashew nuts, no.125 or no.22 depending on which restaurant you are visiting. It has been bastardised and popularised together with the likes of lemon chicken and beef in black bean sauce for many years. Thanks to the demands for authentic Sichuanese food, it is possible to find good gong bao chicken in Melbourne these days. This is quite a dry dish; the sauce is just enough to coat every single piece of ingredients but if you want a wetter dish do double the amount of sauce. This is a simple yet complex dish. It is spicy and numbing  (麻辣，ma la) from the dried chilies and Sichuan peppercorns, sweet and sour (酸甜，suang tian) from the black vinegar and sugar, the contrast between the tender chicken pieces and crunchy nuts, so why change something that is already this good?
P.S This posting is possible thanks to the internet cafe.

recipe adapted from Fucshia Dunlop's Sichuan Cookery
serves 4 as part of a Chinese meal
you'll need;
2 skinless chicken breasts (600 g), cut into 1.5 cm cubes*
5 cm knob of ginger, sliced thinly
6 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tsp of sichuan peppercorns (川椒）
20 dried chillies**, snipped
5 spring onions (white parts only), cut to lengths the size of the diameter
a large handful of cashew nuts or peanuts***
* marinate chicken with a dash of soy, salt, Chinese cooking wine and corn flour.
** adjust the quantity accordingly.
*** I am not a big fan of whole peanuts so cashew was a perfect replacement.

for the sauce;
3 tbs of sugar
1 tbs of dark soy
1 tbs of ligh soy
3 tbs of Chinkiang black vinegar (鎮江香醋)
1 tbs of sesame oil
2 tbs of chicken stock or water
3/4 tbs of cornflour

Prepare the ingredients.

I pan fried the chicken pieces very briefly on high heat. If you have a very powerful stove you may skip this otherwise it is going to create the "wok chi" effect for the finished dish.

Heat up some cooking oil in a hot wok and fry the dried chillies and sichuan peppercorns for 30 seconds, be very careful not to burn the spices. Add in the aromatics immediately and fry for a further 30 seconds.

Return the chicken pieces and cook for a further 30 seconds on high heat.

Finally pour in the sauce mixture and mix well. Turn off heat as soon as the sauce has thicken.

Serve immediately as part of a Chinese meal.