What is La Zi Ji
La Zi Ji is a signature Sichuan dish that is extremely popular in China. The chicken is coated with spices and flash fried until golden brown and crispy. It’s then stir fried with tons of dried chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, ginger and garlic to create a spicy numbing sensation. It is spicy yet you cannot stop eating it because it’s SO GOOD! When introducing someone who’s new to Chinese food to the real deal La Zi Ji (辣子鸡), or Sichuan Mala Chicken, I’d describe the dish as “fried chicken covered in hot sauce” so it won’t completely scare them away. During my years working in Beijing, I took every single foreign colleague to one of my favorite Sichuan restaurants, Yu Xiang Ren Jia (渝乡人家). Mala Chicken was one of the dishes that always appeared on our lunch table. Although my initial goal was to introduce genuine Sichuan food to the uninitiated, I confess that secretly I just loved my colleagues’ stunned faces on seeing the giant plate of chili peppers placed before them. After staring at the plate for a few moments, they would cautiously dig up a piece of hot chicken with suspicion written on their brow, fearful that it might burn a hole in their stomach. And you know what? My guests always ended up loving this dish.
Authentic La Zi Ji
The flavor profile
La Zi Ji is spicy, but not as spicy as it looks. Sichuan cuisine pursues truly bold flavors that are well-balanced. In this chicken dish, the balance comes from the spiciness and smokiness of the chili peppers, the numbing tingling Sichuan peppercorns, the nuttiness of the sesame seeds, savory aromatics, salt, and a small amount of sugar. The dish offers a deep savory taste using heat as a medium. It is not like pure, tear-inducing Thai-style spiciness.
The presentation
Hiding the chicken under a mountain of peppers is just the authentic Sichuan way to display the food. The nutty, smoky fragrance of the vibrant peppers reaches your nostrils before your chopsticks do, and it makes your mouth water and makes you suddenly feel ten times hungrier. Here are some fun facts about the authentic Mala Chicken we serve in China:
Chinese chefs usually use tiny bone-in chicken pieces to cook this dish. It takes some effort to pick the meat from the bones, which makes eating it extra satisfying. But here we make things easy by using boneless thighs.The amount of chili peppers in the dish far exceeds the amount of chicken, so you’ll need to spend quite some time digging through the peppers in order to find a chunk of meat. I used a ton of peppers in the dish for the presentation, but feel free to reduce the amount because it doesn’t affect the flavor too much.Tons of numbing, tingling, whole Sichuan peppercorns are used. You need to keep a sharp eye and shake off these fiery little corns before placing a piece of chicken on your tongue, otherwise your tastebuds will completely shut down for the next 10 minutes. I included two methods in the recipe below, so you can either include or exclude the peppercorns.
Key ingredients for La Zi Ji
To cook the real-deal La Zi Ji, Sichuan chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns are the two irreplaceable key ingredients.
Sichuan dried chili pepper
There are a few types of Sichuan chili peppers that are commonly used in Sichuan cuisine. In the recipe for La Zi Ji, chefs usually use medium heat Facing Heaven Chili (Chao Tian Jiao, 朝天椒). The short, fat Lantern Peppers (Deng Long Jiao, 灯笼椒) are often added for their nice smoky flavor. And you can control the heat level by leaving the peppers whole for a milder dish, or slicing them to expose the seeds for a much spicier dish.
Sichuan peppercorns
Sichuan peppercorn (Hua Jiao, 花椒) is another key ingredient that you might not be familiar with. Fresh Sichuan peppercorns have a pungent aroma that lingers around the nose. Its taste is almost indescribable: numbing, tingling, and somewhat refreshing like mint. These corns add a savory, smokey and slightly citrusy flavor to a dish, and that is what makes it genuine Sichuan food. I consider it even more important than Sichuan chili peppers, truly distinguishing the dish and giving it a character unlike anything else. If you’re ready to cook up some authentic La Zi Ji or some other Sichuan dishes, order some premium Sichuan peppercorns and chili peppers now. You’ll be surprised how good your dish turns out simply by using fresher spices.
How to cook La Zi Ji
Cooking a great plate of La Zi Ji takes some extra steps, but it is totally worth the effort.
How to prep the chicken
To get the most flavorful chicken, you will need to I found the coating really makes this dish stand out and taste much more flavorful than if you directly add the seasonings during the stir fry process. For the dry coating, I prefer the ziplock method the most. Because the mixture is quite spicy, you can massage the spices into the chicken without burning your hand.
Mise en place
Once you start cooking, the process is super fast. So you will want to make sure your table has these ingredients prepped before you start the cooking: marinated chicken with the dry coating, chopped aromatics, Sichuan peppercorns, the dry mixture of chili pepper and other spices, and chopped cilantro.
Cooking process
How to serve La Zi Ji
A bowl of steamed rice is the default side dish. I also highly recommend serving another cold appetizer or a light vegetable dish, so you have something to counterbalance the hot chicken. Here are some great options for appetizers and side dishes:
Chinese Pickled Cabbage (A Quick Pickle Recipe)Chinese Spinach and Peanut SaladEasy Chinese Cucumber Salad (拍黄瓜)Wood Ear Mushroom Salad (凉拌木耳)Five Spice and Garlic Roasted PotatoesStir-Fried Pea Shoots with Garlic (蒜蓉炒豆苗)4-Ingredient Baby Bok Choy Stir Fry
Other delicious Sichuan dishes
Suan La Fen (Hot and Sour Noodle Soup, 酸辣粉)Ma La Xiang Guo (Sichuan Mala Dry Pot, 麻辣香锅)Shui Zhu Yu (Sichuan Boiled Fish, 水煮鱼)Fu Qi Fei Pian (Sichuan Sliced Beef in Chili Sauce, 夫妻肺片)Dan Dan Noodles (担担面)Authentic Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐)
