三杯雞 (San Bei Ji)

Tonight, my mom and I had a fun cooking competition. I had been wanting to make this delectable Taiwanese dish called San Bei Ji ever since I had it in a restaurant in Atlanta. Since there was a bunch of spare basil left over from making pizzas earlier this week, San Bei Ji was a great way to use it up. San Bei Ji is literally translated into "Three Cup Chicken." The name comes from the three main ingredients (besides chicken): soy sauce, wine, and sesame oil. Usually chinese rice wine is used, but we substituted it with some nice white wine.

Cooking with clay pots keeps the flavor in.

This is my pot of San Bei Ji. I kept it to the essential elements of the recipes: chicken, soy sauce, wine, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, sugar, and basil.

This is mom's San Bei Ji - she went easy on the soy sauce and put in shiitake mushrooms and a hot chili pepper, smart lady, for an extra hit of spice.

We gave my dad a blind taste test of our two versions of San Bei Ji. He preferred my mom's version with the spicy kick, but my two sisters liked the deep flavor of my dish. Everyone had a delicious meal of San Bei Ji.

三杯雞 (San Bei Ji) Recipe

Half a chicken, bone in and some skin on, cut into 1" pieces

10 slices of fresh ginger

10 cloves of garlic

About 1/4 cup each of soy sauce, cooking wine, and sesame oil

A spoonful of sugar

A handful of fresh basil

Shiitake mushrooms, optional

Hot dried chili pepper, optional

Heat up the sesame oil in a large skillet, throw in the ginger and garlic to build up flavor. Then add in the chicken, brown for a little bit, and add the rest of the ingredients. Give it a good stir and transfer to a clay pot if available (if not, just keep cooking in the skillet, no problem). Cook on low until chicken is cooked and sauce is reduced by a third. Serve with white rice.