Taiwanese stir-fried chicken

Soy sauce paste is a thicker, sweeter version of soy sauce that uses sugar, more wheat and sometimes thickeners in fermentation. It has a sweet and savoury flavour.

This recipe is by Chef Jeff Wu, who has been in New Zealand promoting Taiwan (how better than through food), and I have adapted it for the Kiwi kitchen. It's a classic and easy to make. Some of the ingredients might not be familiar, but I found them easily at my local Chinese shop (with the help of a few Google pages on my phone shown to the helpful staff — people are always interested in you when you are interested in their food). Read more from Ray on Taiwan and it's recipes.

Ingredients

4 Tbsp	Sesame oil
1 piece	Ginger, 3cm, peeled and thinly sliced
3 whole	Garlic cloves
800 g	Boneless chicken thighs, diced 4cm, free change
4 Tbsp	Soy sauce paste
4 Tbsp	Soy sauce
2 Tbsp	Shao Xing Chinese rice cooking wine
¼ cup	Sugar
¼ tsp	Ground white pepper
1	Onion, thinly sliced
1	Spring onion, thinly sliced
2	Red chillies, sliced ½ cm thick
1 small handful	Basil leaves

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 180C.
2. Place one large or 2 smaller Chinese claypots in the oven to heat. If you don't have a claypot, just put an ovenproof casserole dish in the oven to heat.
3. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a wok over moderate heat and add the ginger, fry for 30 seconds then add the garlic. Stir-fry for 30 seconds then add the chicken. Stir-fry until the chicken is cooked and browned. Add the soy sauce paste, soy sauce, wine, sugar and pepper, bring to the boil and boil gently for 1 minute.
4. Meanwhile pour the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil into the claypot/s and add the onion so it sizzles.
5. Add the spring onion, chilli and basil to the chicken mixture. Stir-fry 10 seconds and serve the chicken mixture on the onion in the hot claypots or casserole.

More of Ray's Taiwanese recipes

• Golden fried prawns
• Braised beef noodle soup