Drool-worthy Sichuan Chicken in Chili Oil Sauce (Kou Shui Ji)

Step 1

Put chopped peanuts, roasted sesame seeds, red pepper flakes and salt into a medium bowl and set it aside. Heat your oil in pan over low heat, and add the scallions, ginger, garlic, star anise, cinnamon stick, and Sichuan peppercorns. Allow these aromatics to slowly infuse into the oil, until everything is kind of browned and wrinkly and fragrant. Discard the spices and pour the hot infused oil into the peanut mixture. Give everything a stir and cover the bowl with a plate to seal everything inside. Walk away and don't come back until everything else is ready!

Step 2

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil (there should be enough water to submerge the chicken) along with the ginger and scallion. Once it's boiling, add the chicken (once it's added the water will probably stop boiling because of the temperature change).

Step 3

Bring the water to a boil again, and after a minute, cover the pot and immediately turn off the heat. Let it sit on the stove for 20 minutes to slowly poach the chicken. In the meantime, prepare a small ice bath for chicken. After 20 minutes, take the chicken out of the pot and plunge it in the ice bath and let the chicken cool completely. Slice the chicken and place it on your serving plate.

Step 4

Mix all of the Step 3 ingredients in a bowl. Now combine the mixture you just made with the peanut mixture you made in Step Pour as much as you want over the chicken. We put about 2/3 of the mixture over the chicken and used the rest for a cold noodle lunch the next day (a highly recommended action!).