This is a poached chicken dish that will make your mouth thank you. Based on Fuchsia Dunlop’s recipe, think a layer of sliced cucumbers, with shredded chicken on top, dressed in a perfectly balanced sauce.
According to Fuchsia, the ‘strange flavour’ refers to the combination of potentially jarring flavours that mix together to make a ‘harmony of opposites’. Think sugar, sweet, sour, salty, savoury, nutty plus numbing and hot.
The ‘bang bang' name comes from the sound of cleavers hammering down on the cooked chicken to help loosen the fibres so the chicken meat was easier to tear into slivers.
*The key to this dish is that you don’t boil the chicken, you poach it. You want to carefully control the temperature so that the temp is a murmur of its former self.
MAKES: Enough for 2-3 people
TAKES: 35 min
INGREDIENTS
2lbs of chicken (thighs, breasts whatever you prefer)
1-inch piece of ginger unpeeled
4 scallions, white parts only (slice 2 of them into slivers and leave 2 of them whole)
2 tsp sesame seeds toasted (just pop them into a frying pan until fragrant and gold)
half a cucumber julienne into nice little slices
3 tbsp crushed roasted peanuts
SAUCE INGREDIENTS
2 tbsp sesame paste
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 fine sugar
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp Chinkiang black vinegar
1/2 tsp ground Sichuan peppercorns
4 tbsp chilli oil with sediment
2 tsp sesame oil
POACHING INSTRUCTIONS
Let the chicken come to room temp.
Give the ginger and 2 scallions a light spank with your knife or rolling pin.
Fill a pot with enough water so that it submerges your chicken.
Bring the water to a boil. (The chicken should not be in the pot yet.)
Once the water is boiling, put the chicken in, and bring it up back to a boil.
Chuck the ginger and scallions in. (The addition of the ginger and scallions is there to take away any of the meat flavours that are gross, leaving a purer and more delicate flavour.)
Half cover with a lid and lower the heat to a gentle gentle simmer. Soft murmurs. (Also the name of my new cryptocurrency or band, not sure yet).
Soft murmur for 30 min.
Poke the thickest part of the chicken with a knife/skewer. If the juices run clear then it’s finished.
Remove once done, and set aside on your chopping board to cool.
*Don’t discard that delicious poaching liquid. Reduce it and use it for broths, or to cook rice with.
PREPARE THE DISH
Make the sauce. Mix the salt, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, chilli oil, sesame paste & oil and Sichuan peppercorns together. You want a consistency that’s runny enough to coat the chicken. Set aside.
Now it’s time for the namesake of this dish. Grab your rolling pin or cleaver. Spank that chicken to loosen the fibres and then tear them into slivers.
Toss with scallion slices and sesame seeds.
Layer the julienned cucumber on a plate, add the chicken on top and pour the sauce over the chicken.
Garnish with more sesame seeds and crushed peanuts if you want extra pizazz. EAT.
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