One of my favourite dishes to make is “Saliva Chicken/口水雞”. It gets its name from the mouthwatering quality of it’s rich, chili-oil sauce full of Sichuan peppercorns. This chicken dish will have you coming back for more and more with its rich, spicy, numbing and savoury sauce. You need to try this Loong Kong Saliva Chicken for your next dinner!
The key part of this dish is getting a good quality chicken. For this recipe I used a Loong Kong Chicken. This chicken is part of BC Chicken’s Speciality Asian Chicken category and can be bought at Price Smart Foods. Loong Kong chickens are locally raised in B.C. without added hormones or steroids. Loong Kong chickens are free run chickens and as such are a little leaner. However, that does not detract from the taste. The chicken has a nice firm texture with a very lovely chicken flavour.
How to Prepare the Loong Kong Chicken
In a large pot, place your chicken and add water to cover. Add ginger, green onion, bay leaf, salt, and dried chili peppers and bring everything to a boil. Turn it to medium heat after it comes to a boil and let it simmer for 20-25 minutes. Check the doneness of your chicken by piercing it slightly to see if the juices run clear. Once the chicken juices run clear, immediately remove the chicken from the heat with tongs, and add it to an ice bath so that the chicken meat and skin will tighten.
How to Prepare the Chili Oil Sauce
In a medium heatproof bowl combine your chili powder, Sichuan peppercorn, five spice powder and sesame seeds. Meanwhile, in a separate pan add your ginger slices, star anise, bay leaf and pour 1 cup of oil and heat all the ingredients. During this process, it is important to pay close attention as burnt spices will impart a bitter flavour. Once the oil is full with the flavourings, discard the spices. Pour the sizzling hot oil in your bowl of spices. Be careful as the oil may splatter. Absolutely try to cover your work surface with newspapers or a covering for easy clean up.
Assemble your Mouth Watering Chicken
In a lipped dish (as we will be liberally pouring the oil sauce), carefully place your prepared Loong Kong chicken. After that, pour the sauce over the chicken and garnish with toasted peanuts, sesame seeds and cilantro.
This dish goes well with a nice hot bowl of steaming rice and freshly steamed egg custard. Enjoy!