It took me too long to realize. What was missing in my life was a man. Specifically, a poultry butcher.
Yes, I learned to carve a whole chicken in culinary school, but bad student that I was, found it too much of a chore. After graduation I rarely brought home whole chickens to dissect. Instead, at the supermarket, I made a beeline for neatly packaged drumsticks and wings.
In China’s wet markets, however, you can select your chicken from the poultry guys, who will pluck, carve, and bag your bird in a matter of minutes. The more expensive chickens at the wet markets are free-range, ol’ skool-style, raised by local farmers who let them run around their neighborhoods and feed them grain or table scraps (consider the alternative.) The cheaper birds at the wet markets, not to mention any packaged chicken you’ll find at supermarkets, are factory-farmed. These are what Chinese people mean when they refer to “chicken that has no chicken taste.”
So, a poultry butcher is a lazy cook’s best friend. Especially when it comes to making stupidly easy but insanely addictive dishes like Three Cup Chicken.
A Taiwanese dish, three cup chicken consists of bite-sized chicken (bone-in) braised with equal parts soy sauce, white rice wine, and sesame oil. The combination, plus some sugar and a potent amount of garlic and ginger, eliminates the need for any spices. An essential ingredient to add at the end is Thai or oriental basil, with adds a mild clove-like flavor to the dish.
And it takes only 15 minutes from start to end.
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Three Cup Chicken
Serves 4
- 1/2 cup sesame oil, divided in half
- 1 whole 2 to 2 1/2 pound chicken, chopped to bite-sized pieces
- 10 cloves garlic, chopped
- 10 pieces thinly sliced ginger
- 1/2 cup light soy sauce
- 1/2 cup white rice wine
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 2 cups fresh Thai or oriental basil
- Heat 1/4 cup of the sesame oil in a large wok or clay pot. Stir-fry the chicken pieces until lightly brown and crisp on the outside, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry for another minute.
- Pour in the remaining 1/4 cup sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice wine. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and let simmer for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, stir in the white sugar. Stir in the Thai basil and simmer another 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve with rice.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a recipe that uses that much sesame oil but I totally trust you on it. The recipe looks easy and is now on my “try” list.
I tried to make this dish years ago and failed because I took the name too literally. Yes, I used a full cup of sesame oil, a full cup of wine, and a full cup of soy sauce. One plus one plus one equals three, right?
Glad to see this recipe. It may be time to try again.
Amy – I think a lot of the sesame taste gets cooked into the chicken when the chicken is being pan-fried. I have seen recipes that call for searing the chicken in vegetable oil, THEN adding 1/2 cup or 1 full cup sesame oil. That seems a tad overwhelming.
Helen – I agree. I have seen recipes call for a full cup of each for 1 chicken. Maybe it would make sense if you were doing 2 or 3 whole chickens. But still, 1 cup sesame oil is overkill.
wow, it looks yummy will need to cook this one soon then. thks
I’m loving the look of this!
The best chickens we have ever had – ever, ever, ever – were the ones we bought at the wet market in Shanghai. They made incredible roast birds. Still remember them… Never had a ‘free-range’ bird in the US that matched that flavor.
I have never used so much oil esp sesame oil in my cooking before. But your 3CC looks so appetizing!
I love you honesty about being taking shortcuts despite knowing how to do it properly.
Isn’t an important part of this dish not to use boneless chicken? I would think that having the chicken chopped into pieces that go through the bones adds to the flavor.
Velops – Yup, you should always use bone-in chicken for braising to maintain the juiciness.
We use to have a poultry market here in Montreal with live chickens. My mum use to take me there and have me pick the bird. It took me awhile to understand that that was dinner and not a pet that will come home lol. They would slaughter the bird and cut it up for you. That market closed down years ago. I wish it where still there, supermarket chicken is subpar these days.
Your dish looks amazing. I will give it try next time I make chicken.
Robyn – Ah yes, I forgot to mention the roast chickens and ducks you can buy at wet markets. Just take one home, steam some rice and vegetables, and you have a complete meal.
…and add the Chinese rock sugar when adding the liquids. It takes a little longer to cook, but there’s perhaps a bit more depth of flavor. Still, I like the bite-sized idea. I’ll have to try that the next time. I suppose one could still add the rock sugar together with the liquids, right?
I have a question for you about “light soy sauce”. Do you mean that very thin kind? I generally use WanJaShan for my general cooking needs. What’s your opinion on that, Diana? Which do you consider to be a good “light soy sauce”?
judyfoodie – What a shame. When I was growing up in Boston there was a live chicken market in Chinatown that I hated going near because of the stench. Good thing my mother wasn’t as finicky, or else I wouldn have been raised solely on supermarket birds. Then again, I did eat my fare share of Swanson chicken cutlets and Hungry Man fried chicken dinners and .
Susanne – Since soy sauces vary so much from region to region (even from the same company if they ship worldwide) it’s hard to recommend a specific brand. My parents, who live in Southern China, would get their soy sauce brewed in this village my dad was born in. But in a pinch they’ll use Lee Kum Kee, which isn’t as good but widely available. If I’m faced with a bunch of brands I don’t know, I apply the same method I would to any food product: choose the one with the fewest ingredients and with ingredients I can actually pronounce.
Love this recipe. I tend to go for 1/2 cup of sesame oil instead, though. Could be a bit too strong at times.
Do you use the light sesame oil for frying or the black sesame? Seems obvious, but just in case…
Use dark sesame oil. The sesame used in Chinese sesame oil is toasted and so has much more flavor.
I’ve always wondered how to make this, after trying this at Bellagio in October. I also had three cup duck at a Hakka restaurant. So thank you for the recipe and I look forward to trying it at home!
We also feel that 1:1:1 ratio of sesame oil to soy sauce to vinegar is too much oil. So we’ve adapted the recipe to 1:2:3.
Yeah well my mother in law is Chinese and I’m a horrible cook (not even rice is safe), so giving the name in Chinese or the recipe would be great…because she only speaks Chinese, but I would love to try this. I could consider asking my hubby to translate but he’s sooo lazy there isn’t really a point, not to mention they are from Chongqing and he would always prefer SPICY food. Stuff like pickled spicy chicken feet or spicy duck intestines. Anyway I love this page…and after 6 years of living in China (and not reading or speaking Chinese) it makes a great deal of difference since I hate eating the same things over and over again.
I already put Chinese in the post – san bei ji 三杯鸡
…and it tasted GREAT.
Very authentic recipe. I cooked this chicken before by using other recipe, however it turned out to have too much gravy. This round is perfect. Thanks for sharing this great recipe.
Lisa
http://www.bakingfrenzy.com