Recipe Ingredients
San Bei Ji - Three Cup Chicken with Stir-fried Greens
Three Cup Chicken
1 kg chicken breasts, cut into large pieces
¼ cup sesame oil
¼ cup rice wine (Shaoxing)
¼ cup soy sauce
1 bunch basil
2.5cm ginger, sliced
12 cloves garlic, peeled
1 red chili, halved and deseeded
1 cup long grain rice
1 1/2 cups of water
Stir-fried Greens
1 packet of bok choy, choy sum or pak choy
1 head of broccoli, flowerettes separated and cut into bite sized pieces
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon rice wine (Shaoxing)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon cornflour
1 tablespoon peanut or canola oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped
1cm ginger, chopped
1/4 teaspoon sugar
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Equipment you need
Large frypan
Wok
Stirring implements
Large saucepan or microwave container for the steamed rice
4 bowls for serving
1 serving bowl for the stir fried greens
Recipe adapted from recipe at https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/04/taiwanese-three-cup-chicken-san-bei-gi-recipe.html
Eastern Asian Recipes | Asian Food
San Bei Ji is also known as “Three Cup Chicken”. It is a braised chicken dish which uses equal quantities of three ingredients - soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar (not one cup of each!).
San Bei Ji was introduced to Taiwan by the Hakka people of China. It is believed that the original dish originated in the Song Dynasty (1127-1279AD), when a famous military hero, Wen Tianxiang was captured a tortured by the invading Mongols. It is said that the prison warden cooked a chicken dish for him before his execution using the only ingredients he could find - lard, wine and soy sauce. Like most Chinese dishes that find their way to Taiwan, it has a Taiwanese twist with the addition of basil.