Chicken or Beef Green Beans
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Chicken and marinade
- 300 g chicken thigh, sliced thinly; see variations for beef rounded
- 6 g cornflour rounded
- 15 ml light soy sauce rounded
- 10 ml Shaoxing wine rounded
Sauce
- 30 ml light soy sauce rounded
- 10 ml dark soy sauce rounded
- 15 ml Shaoxing wine rounded
- 8 g sugar rounded
- 60 ml chicken stock or water rounded
- 5 ml toasted sesame oil rounded
Beans and aromatics
- 500 g green beans, topped and tailed, dried thoroughly rounded
- 80 ml neutral oil, for blistering; most is poured off rounded
- 5 garlic cloves, finely minced rounded
- 10 g fresh ginger, finely minced rounded
- 3 g dried chilli flakes (optional) rounded
Method
Method
- Dry the beans completely. Wash them well ahead and dry them thoroughly with a towel. Wet beans in hot oil spit violently and will not blister.
- Marinate the chicken with the cornflour, soy sauce and Shaoxing wine for 15 minutes.
- Mix the sauce and keep it beside the stove.
- Blister the beans in two batches. Heat the oil in a wok over medium-high until it shimmers. Add half the beans and let them sit for 30 to 40 seconds at a time between stirs, 4 to 5 minutes in total, until the skins wrinkle all over and are scorched in patches. Lift them out with a strainer and repeat. This is shallow frying, not stir-frying, and it is what the dish is.
- Pour off almost all the oil, leaving about a tablespoon.
- Sear the chicken over high heat for 2 minutes until just cooked, then push it to one side.
- Fry the aromatics. Garlic, ginger and chilli flakes for 30 seconds until fragrant. There is a lot of garlic here and it should stay pale.
- Return the beans, add the sauce. Tip the beans back in, pour the sauce over and toss for about 1 minute until it has almost entirely reduced onto the beans and there is nothing loose in the pan. Serve.
Variations
- Beef green beans. 300 g flank steak sliced thinly against the grain, tenderised with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda for 30 minutes and rinsed, then velveted as above.
- Pork green beans. 250 g minced pork, browned hard until crispy before the aromatics go in, which is closest to the Sichuan original.
- Vegetarian green beans. No meat, add 150 g finely chopped mushrooms browned dry, and use vegetarian oyster sauce in place of half the soy.
- Preserved vegetable version. Add 40 g chopped ya cai or preserved mustard greens with the aromatics for the authentic Sichuan gan bian dou jiao.
Notes
- Blistered is not the same as cooked. The beans should look slightly shrivelled and unattractive in the pan, which is exactly right. A bright stiff green bean has not been blistered and will taste of nothing.
- Use enough oil and let them sit. Constant stirring keeps the temperature down and steams the beans. Leave them alone in stretches.
- The sauce should almost disappear. This is a dry dish. If there is sauce pooling at the end, keep tossing over the heat.
- Save the strained oil. It is now green-bean flavoured and is excellent for the next stir-fry.
- Good at room temperature, which makes it one of the better dishes here to bring to a table.
Ingredient substitutions
- Green beans should be firm and slim. Flat romano beans work and need a minute longer. Frozen beans do not blister and are not worth using here.
- Dark soy sauce provides colour. Without it use extra light soy.
- Shaoxing wine substitutes with dry sherry, or stock plus a splash of rice vinegar.