Three Cup Chicken

INGREDIENTS

For this three cup chicken recipe, you can find most ingredients at your local grocery store, with the exception of the Chinese rice cooking wine. Chinese rice cooking wine can be found at an Asian grocery store or online. For this recipe, you can also use Shaoxing cooking wine to substitute the rice cooking wine.

Cuts of Chicken

Traditionally, three cup chicken is made with chicken legs which have been chopped into smaller pieces using a meat cleaver (bone in). Unfortunately, it meant that if the cleaver wasn’t sharp enough, the cuts between the bones would have bone shards and fragments which are terrible to eat through if they were not carefully picked out before cooking it.

Here are a few ideas to get you started, that I like to use depending on my mood

• Chicken drummettes – These are the drums part of the chicken wing and as close to traditional as chopped chicken thigh because it still has a bone, but minus the bone shards and cleaving
• Chicken wings (separated by segments) – I personally love eating the flats/wingette part of the chicken wings so I use chicken wings both drummette and wingette a lot (like in my photos). To make it easier to eat they should be separated
• Chicken drums – Chicken drums also have the bone, and is a lot more meatier but it takes slightly longer to cook because of its size, with it’s bone in and all.
• Boneless dark meat (any cut, cut into small chunks) – This is also an amazing alternative if you are okay with having no bone in your recipe. Every bite is bite-sized boneless meat so it’s a lot easier to eat, and it also cooks a bit faster too.
• Boneless white meat (cut into small chunks) – If you’re looking for a healthier cut of meat, white meat also works but you have to be careful not to over cook it so it stays tender and moist. I like to marinate the chicken chunks in a 1:1 ratio of soy sauce and water (like a mini brine) 1 hour ahead before using it. This mini brine draws the water into the meat (you’ll notice the mini brine actually disappears and gets absorbed) which makes for a more moist chicken.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

Keep Aromatics Big and Chunky

For this recipe, you want to keep the aromatics (ginger, garlic, shallots, chilies) big and chunky so they don’t burn as easily since you will be toasting them in sesame oil for quite a bit of time (and so you can pick out the ginger slices easily before eating it). Don’t worry, they won’t stay big and chunky. The caramelized garlic and the shallots will eventually soften and slightly melt into the sauce during the braising step.

Why Is There Water In This Recipe?

Whenever I make this dish, I find it quite salty. Especially, when the sauce starts to reduce at the end. I found that the best way to work around that is by adding water to the sauce. It will take a bit more time to reduce the sauce to thicken it but the sauce will be a lot less saltier, without sacrificing any flavor.

To Keep it Flavorful, Delicate Aromatics Go In At the End

Delicate spices and aromatics like fresh basil, lose it’s flavor when it’s cooked. To keep this dish super flavorful, I like to add the green onions at the very end to wilt it slightly and then turn off the heat before putting in the basil leaves. The residual heat from the chicken will wilt the basil slightly but will not cook out the oils which give it its flavor!