Recipe: Bang Bang Chicken

This dish is so named because of the sound of banging as you hit the cooked chicken breast into loose meaty threads.

Consider this a Szechuan Chinese version of the American chicken salad. It's a great way to utilize the poached chicken breast from making White Cut Chicken ("Bak Chit Gai") which you can also find on this blog.

The Szechuan pepper lends a lemony flavor and numbing sensation to the dish.

This dish stimulates all the tastes of sweet, salty, tangy, and spicy.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the salad:

• 1 large chicken breast (cooked)
• 1 large cucumber (or you can substitute 1 head of romaine lettuce sliced thinly)
• 1 large carrot julienned (cut into match stick sized pieces)
• 3 scallions cut into 2" pieces and then thinly sliced lengthwise (so it looks like grass)

For the dressing:

• 2 tablespoons tahini sesame paste (you can also use smooth peanut butter)
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce (I use Kikoman)
• 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil (I like Kadoya brand)
• 1 tablespoon Chinkiang vinegar (you can substitute Balsamic)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground Szechuan Pepper (optional)
• 1 teaspoon Chili flakes (optional)
• 4 tablespoons water

Directions

1. With the back of a chef's knife, bang the chicken (skin side up) until the chicken starts to flatten and loosen into fibers. You can then pull the chicken meat into bite sized pieces.
2. If using cucumber, cut in hald lengthwise, scoop out seeds with a spoon, and slice thinly.
3. Put all the salad ingredients into a large bowl.
4. In a small bowl combine all the dressing ingredients and mix well. The sauce will look like it's breaking but keep stirring until it is all smooth.
5. Toss with the salad ingredients and serve.