Fried in sesame oil, braised in rice wine and soy sauce, then flavoured with fresh basil, Taiwanese three cup chicken is super aromatic and very easy to cook.
In Chinese culinary culture, three criteria are applied to judge the quality of a dish: colour, aroma and taste (色,香,味). Before tasting or even seeing a dish, its aroma is the first factor to attract your attention and trigger your interest. Today I’d like to introduce a classic Chinese dish that is super aromatic: Three cup chicken (San Bei Ji, 三杯鸡).
What is three cup chicken?
Three cup chicken is widely considered to be a Taiwanese speciality (Some suggest that it originates from Jiangxi province, China, over 700 years ago). Originally, “three cup” refers to the equal usage of three main condiments: sesame oil, soy sauce and rice wine.
However, in practice I’ve never seen any recipes using them in an equal quantity (It would be overly salty and oily). I believe that the idea is to emphasize the importance of these three ingredients which make this dish different from others.
How to make it super aromatic
Now let me explain to you what makes three cup chicken super aromatic.
Sesame oil
Instead of using regular cooking oil, this dish calls for pure sesame oil which has an intensely nutty flavour. In my recipe, it’s firstly used to fry the chicken. Then right before serving I like adding a little more of it to enhance the aroma.
Rice wine
You don’t need any water to braise the chicken. The generous usage of rice wine gives the chicken a unique fragrance. Shaoxing rice wine is the most popular type that can be easily found in Chinese stores.
Soy sauce & Sugar
Soy sauce provides a kind of flavoursome saltiness which is more sophisticated than that of salt. I use both light soy sauce and dark soy sauce for this dish. The latter offers a hint of sweetness as well as an appetizing look. Rock sugar (can be replaced by regular sugar) is also added to balance the saltiness.
Ginger & garlic
I recommend that you use lots of ginger and whole cloves of garlic. They are for seasoning the dish. But in fact, they are delicious on their own! After cooking, they will lose much of their spiciness and absorb lots of flavour from the sauce.
Basil leaves
Basil leaves give a great final touch to the dish. Authentic versions call for Thai basil which has a stronger flavour and aroma than regular basil. But the latter can certainly be used as a substitute.
Scrumptious dishes are not necessarily complicated to cook. Three cup chicken is a good example. Have some plain rice cooked while you are preparing the chicken. Within 20 minutes, you will have a complete meal ready to tuck into.
Three cup chicken (San Bei Ji, 三杯鸡)
Ingredients
- 6 chicken thighs (about 600g/1.3lb), cut into chunks (see note 1)
- 2 ½ tbsp sesame oil
- 15 slices ginger
- 10 cloves garlic
- 120 ml Shaoxing rice wine, ½ cup
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rock sugar, or regular sugar
- ½ red bell pepper, cut into square pieces
- 2 stalk scallions, chopped
- 1 handful fresh basil, see note 2
Instructions
- Blanch chicken chunks in hot water then drain well.
- Heat up 2 tablespoons of sesame oil with ginger and garlic in a cold wok (or a deep frying pan) over a medium heat. Fry until the ginger becomes slightly brown.
- Stir in drained chicken. Fry for 1 minute or so.
- Add rice wine, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and rock sugar.
- Cover the wok with a lid (keep medium heat). Cook for about 5 minutes.
- Put in bell pepper and scallions, then cover and cook for a further 2 minutes.
- Uncover the wok and turn up the heat. Stir around until most of the liquid is evaporated and the chicken is coated evenly by the remaining sauce.
- Turn off the heat. Stir in the remaining ½ tablespoon of sesame oil and basil leaves. Cover the wok for 1 minute.
- Dish out and serve with plain rice.
NOTES
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Have a lovely day!
Oh my goodness! So easy, so delicious! Definitely going to be a new weeknight hit!
Thank you Karly! This kind of weeknight simple dish is so handy. Hope you and your family like it! Have a lovely day!
Could I use anything in place of the rice wine?
Hi Nabeah! I’m afraid there is no ideal substitute for this particular recipe as you need a quite a bit of rice wine and it creates the key flavour for this dish. Normally if only a small amount of rice wine is called for in a recipe, you may replace it with dry sherry. Unfortunately I wouldn’t recommend it for three cup chicken. Hope you can find rice wine near where you live. In the UK, it’s available both in mainstream supermarkets and Chinese/Asian shops.
Oh thank you for you reply anyways. Its not that I can’t find it, I’m muslim so we don’t consume any wine.
Oh I understand! I have another alternative then. Just replace rice wine with the same amount of water. It won’t be authentic three cup chicken but it will taste nice too.
Thank you for the recipe, and for your wonderful blog 🙂
I couldn’t find rice wine, so I replaced it with dry sherry 😀
It’s delicious but I’ll definitely make it again when get proper wine to enjoy authentic taste.
Best wishes to you Wei!
You are more than welcome Nick! Very happy to know my recipe worked out for you (even with substitute). It’s my great pleasure to sharing my passion and my knowledge. Have a great day!
Great recipe, delicious! Thanks for sharing this one with us!
You are welcome Zhien! Classic dishes always rock!
Hello Wei, I’m looking for more chicken recipes like this one. Easy and so flavorful! Would you be able to upload more chicken recipes? I appreciate it!
Thanks Zhien! Yes I will post more chicken recipes in the future. Have a great day!
Perfect recipe, tasted amazing, thanks again Wei!
You are welcome Ming!
Have you every heard of this recipe with Gogi berries instead of basil ?
Yes Tim! I think you are talking about Taiwanese sesame oil chicken (台式麻油鸡) which calls for Goji berries, shiitake mushroom, Chinese dates etc. Even if these two dishes have certain similarity, they are considered to be two different classic dishes.
Thank you so much Wei !
My pleasure Tim!
Hi Wei! I just returned from a wonderful trip to China and I’m excited to try your recipes. How do you feel about tenderizing meats? Do you always/sometimes/never tenderize? If you do, what’s the best way? Thank you!
-Alex
Hi Alex! Glad to know you’ve had a yummy trip to China. I do tenderize meats but not always. Fatty meat, thinly sliced meat don’t require tenderizing especially if you know how to control the timing and don’t overcook it. When tenderizing is necessary, if you stir fry lean beef for example, you may use cornstarch, egg white to marinate prior to cooking.
Every time I make 三杯雞, it always ends up being very salty with the sauce separating. Is that because I don’t use enough sugar?
Hi Justine! I wouldn’t know the exact reasons for your problems as I don’t know how exactly you cooked it before. The saltiness of soy sauce vary depending on the brand. Please feel free to reduce the amount of soy sauce used to suit your own taste. The lack of sugar may lead to runny sauce. I don’t think you would have problems like that if you follow my recipe precisely. Have a try!
Tastes delicious and will add it to my meal prep rotations!
That’s great to hear Grace!
Would you mind explaining blanching chicken? I boiled it for a minute in some salt water, but I feel like it made the chicken thigh just a little dry. Otherwise it was great, thank you! Looking forward to trying some of your other recipes!
Thank you Jared for trying out my recipe! The blanching process goes like this: Add chicken chunks to a pot filled with water at room temperature. Bring it to a full boil. Leave to cook for a minute or so. Skim off the impurity floating on the surface. Drain well then move on to the next step. I guess you might have put the chicken into boiling water which is not recommended as the meat contracts when comes in contact with sudden heat. Hope this helps.
Thank you Wei! That makes sense — I definitely added the chicken directly to boiling water. I’ll give your method a try next time. Thank you for all of the great recipes; it’s been a joy sharing food from my days living in China with the rest of my family.
You’re welcome Jared! Have a great time feeding your loved ones with delicious Chinese food!
10 years after you posted this recipe and I found it, tried it, three thumbs up from me and my family!!!
Thank you!
My recipe isn’t quite 10-year-old yet but I’m delighted to hear you and your family have enjoyed the dish 💖!