Fuchsia Dunlop’s gong bao chicken with peanuts

Serves 2 as a main dish or 4 as part of a Chinese meal

boneless chicken breasts 2 (300-350g in total), with or without skin
garlic cloves 3
an equivalent amount of ginger
spring onions 5, white parts only
dried chillies a handful (about 10)
cooking oil 2 tbsp
whole Sichuan pepper 1 tsp
roasted peanuts 75g

For the marinade
salt ½ tsp
light soy sauce 2 tsp
Shaoxing wine 1 tsp
potato flour 1 ½ tsp

For the sauce
caster sugar 1 tbsp
potato flour ¾ tsp
dark soy sauce 1 tsp
light soy sauce 1 tsp
Chinkiang vinegar 1 tbsp
sesame oil 1 tsp
chicken stock or water 1 tbsp

Cut the chicken as evenly as possible into 1.5cm strips, then cut these into small cubes. Place in a small bowl. Add the marinade ingredients together with 1 tbsp water, mix well and set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.

Peel and thinly slice the garlic and ginger and chop the spring onions into chunks as long as their diameter (to match the chicken cubes). Snip the chillies in half or into sections. Discard their seeds as far as possible. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.

Heat a seasoned wok over a high flame. Add the oil with the chillies and Sichuan pepper and stir-fry briefly until the chillies are darkening but not burnt (remove the wok from the heat if necessary to prevent overheating).

Quickly add the chicken and stir-fry over a high flame, stirring constantly. As soon as the chicken cubes have separated, add the ginger, garlic and spring onions and continue to stir-fry until they are fragrant and the meat just cooked through (test one of the larger pieces to make sure).

Give the sauce a stir and add it to the wok, continuing to stir and toss. As soon as the sauce has become thick and shiny, stir in the peanuts and serve.