Recipe from Spicy Village
Adapted by Mark Bittman
- Total Time
- About 1 hour, plus time to marinate
- Rating
- 4(908)
- Notes
- Read community notes
At Spicy Village in in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the Spicy Big Tray Chicken arrives on an aluminum tray. You eat it on a foam plate with a plastic fork or chopsticks. It’s a mound of chicken nearly afloat in a bath of dark, spicy sauce that contains star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, chile, garlic, cilantro, a few mystery ingredients and potatoes. Those of you who live in or visit New York should eat this dish whenever you can, but it can absolutely be prepared at home. It’s not precisely a simple recipe. But it’s an excellent project one. And you can improve on the ingredients. The restaurant uses both MSG and Budweiser in the recipe. We subbed in Modelo Negra and omitted the MSG, but you certainly don't need to. —Mark Bittman
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Ingredients
Yield:at least 4 servings
- 3pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and legs
- 2teaspoons salt, plus more to taste
- 2teaspoons, plus 1 tablespoon black pepper, plus more to taste
- 112-ounce beer
- 1pound new potatoes
- 1 to 2quarts vegetable oil
- 2tablespoons sliced garlic
- 2teaspoons cumin seeds
- 2teaspoons fennel seeds
- 1teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns, roughly chopped
- 1star anise, left whole
- 2dried chiles, minced
- 1½tablespoons Sichuan hot bean sauce
- 2tablespoons dark rice wine (preferably Fujian Cooking Wine)
- 3 to 4cups chicken stock or water
- 2tablespoons sugar
- ¼cup soy sauce
- Cilantro, for garnish
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
With a cleaver, chop the chicken into 2-inch pieces, and toss with 2 teaspoons salt and 2 teaspoons black pepper. (Use chicken scraps to make stock if you can.) Cover with the beer and marinate it in the refrigerator overnight or for at least a few hours. Cook the potatoes in salted water until nearly done; drain; cut into bite-size pieces if necessary.
Step
2
Heat at least 2 inches of the oil in a wok or tall, narrow pot over high heat. The more oil you use, the more chicken you can cook at one time.
Step
3
When the oil is hot, fry the chicken, in batches if necessary, until slightly brown; depending on your heat, this could take 1 to 5 minutes. Stir frequently. Remove with a spider or slotted spoon and let rest until cool, then fry again — up to 5 minutes depending on your heat — until nicely browned and crisp; remove. If you have the time, refrigerate the chicken before proceeding.
Step
4
Reduce the oil to about 2 tablespoons (reserve the rest for frying or other uses), and turn the heat to high. Add the garlic, and cook a few seconds, then add another tablespoon of oil.
Step
5
Add the cumin seeds, fennel seeds, Sichuan peppercorns, anise and dried chiles, and stir to combine. Add the hot bean sauce, and stir; return the chicken to the wok or skillet.
Step
6
Stir in the dark rice wine and 2 cups stock or water, and stir to create a sauce. Add 1 tablespoon black pepper, the sugar and soy sauce; bring to a vigorous boil.
Step
7
Add the potatoes, and continue to boil for another 10 to 15 minutes, adding more liquid as needed to keep the mixture soupy; you want to wind up with 1 to 2 cups sauce and tender potatoes. Taste, and adjust seasoning; add more black pepper if the taste isn’t strong.
Step
8
Ladle the chicken, potatoes and broth into bowls. Garnish with cilantro and serve with noodles or rice.
Ratings
4
out of 5
908
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Alan
Maybe it's just me, but when I see 1 or 2 quarts cooking oil I stop reading.
Kathy
The steam from the wet meat pushes the fat away from the interior. Deep fat frying just until the food is cooked does not add much fat to the dish. I filtered the cooled fat through a paper towel in a sieve set into a funnel back into the jar I used once before. It is getting more and more chicken fat tasting! It will go over my woodpile when it starts to turn rancid. But protected from air and light, I will probably get a few more chicken fries out of it. I don't fear deep fat frying.
Susan Lopez
I love chicken thighs so I tried this recipe for a change of pace.
Instead of wok frying I oven baked the the marinated chicken with a bit of olive oil at high temperature for 40min (everyone's oven is different-for my oven this was at 250c ) This crisped the chicken and rendered the fat nicely. I used the rendered fat to begin at step 4 with a wok and it turned out well. I also added some sautéed green beans.
mjan
Two tips, sportsfans! Fry the chicken in a deep stock pot or a Dutch oven. Keeps the oil off your cooktop and countertops. Once the chicken is fried, finish this dish in a paella pan if you've got one. You can complete cooking in the pan and use it to serve also.
June
i'm an old retired person and i'm lazy: i had a rotisserie chicken in the frig, cut it up and started with step #4. this recipe is fabulous and i'm going to make it again tonight. i had small dried red chiles from the Mexican spice rack at the supermercado and i didn't have the hot bean sauce. this is currently my very favorite chicken recipe and it looks great served in my paella pan.
Mark
I'm generally not attuned to deep frying mainly because the use of huge amounts of oil that needs to be filtered and stored when done. That being said, you can shallow fry ,saute or even high heat roast(450f) the chicken and proceed with step 4 and still end up with a tasty dish. I did and it was delicious. Not trying to mess with the recipe, just pointing out a viable alternative to concerns that some posters have expressed.
Mari
I baked the marinated chicken on a pre-heated crisper pan at 240C (460F), having brushed it with vegetable oil and sprinkled it with salt. It took 25 mins to become browned and crispy - no deep-frying mess required! I used baby potatoes (Charlotte) and steamed them in skins until almost done, then halved them and added them to the sauce. I added 1/2, not 2, tbsp of sugar (brown), and Korean Gochujang instead of Sichuan hot bean sauce. I had a large fresh red chili so I used that, not dried. mmmm
Deborah Payne
This was delicious but could Mr Bittman come clean my kitchen? The frying is so messy and I used a wok which I thought would contain the splatters. Also, I'm not certain anything was gained by frying the chicken twice and then refrigerating it before proceeding with the next steps. It was tasty and I would cook it again in spite of the state of my kitchen.
Leslye Borden
I saw many notes about the mess frying made. While I love the recipe, I try to avoid deep frying anything, so I roasted the thighs (not cut into 2-inch pieces) in a 450 degree oven, 15 minutes on each side. They came out brown and crispy and I proceeded with the recipe after the frying step. Came out wonderful. Big hit!
Pete
The faster food is cooled the less likely it is to grow bacteria. Cooling food on the counter before refrigerating is a great way to ensure the food stays in the danger zone between 40F and 140F. Place cooked food in a shallow pan, not piled up or too close together, and refrigerate. If you want to avoid sogginess from condensation cool it unwrapped to start, then wrap once it has cooled if you plan to store it more than a few hours.
Michael S
Hi y'all,Just fyi this is an adaptation of a Uyghur dish from Xinjiang province in western China that is popular in Sichuan. It is known as "da pan ji" or "big plate chicken." It is usually served over long wide noodles (think tagliatelle but like 2 or 3 times as wide). Not sure why the noodles are left out here as that's one of the best parts of this dish! You can usually find these noodles or something similar in the refrigerated section in a Chinese market. Happy cooking!
Kathleen
This is delicious! So flavorful! Next time I'll add more potatoes. (I boiled another pound of potatoes and enjoyed the flavorful leftovers the next day.) Used boneless chicken thighs and less oil.
NYTfan
My first post on NYT :-) My children like their food well spiced but are not fond of whole spices. So I used cumin, fennel and sichuan pepper powders. I oven roasted chicken and potatoes and I substituted sparkling apple soda for beer (gluten allergy) and did not have Chinese rice wine. Yet it turned out amazing. Will definitely make this again... and again!
Nick
Wow. 90% percent of the people who commented below do not understand this dish... This recipe is an excellent simplified version of the actual glorious mouth tingling plate at Spicy Village.
Kathy
I found hacking the legs the most complicated part. I will bone out the thighs next time. The pepper beer marinade was great. I very much liked the taste of the chicken after the second frying and will try that without the braise too. I used water instead of broth and the sauce was fabulous.
caroline
I’ve had this at spicy village and made at home at least a dozen times. Don’t skip frying the chicken twice! Because you end up putting the chicken in the sauce you want to make sure the skin is a crispy-gone-soggy texture rather than something that goes rubbery. I soak wide rice noodles in cold water and throw them in the sauce towards the end of cooking. Turns into more of a noodle dish but it’s delicious. Using chicken wings is a great alternative to using a cleaver. And I always add MSG.
Tony Boskovich
Didn’t work for me or my wife. The flavors were not consistent through the dish. It probably works in a restaurant, but is too much work for the end product at home.
Joe
Da pan ji! I noticed this recipe on cooking.nytimes.com front page the morning of the opening day of the Beijing Winter Olympics and interpreted that placement as a subtly subversive sign. This dish was created by the Hui outside Xian in the late 1990s, quickly adopted by the Uyghur thereafter, and within years could be found throughout the entire country of China. It is an extremely symbolic food for the muslims in China. I'll cook of "big plate chicken" in honor of my friend out west!
Rit
Is there a version that does not require alcohol ? What can be substituted for beer in this recipe ?
Jennifer
Wish I had read the comments before making this. For a home cook, the double frying is a mess. And eating it with the bone in was not enjoyable. Next time, I'll get boneless skinless chicken thighs and stir fry them. I ended up adding a sliced shallot with the garlic and baby spinach at the end. Family loved it with the caveat of no frying nor bones next time. The sauce was the bomb!
p
if you dont like deep frying than a lot of szechuan cooking is just not for you
John
50:50 mix of miso paste and sriracha to substitute hot bean saucehigh heat roast(450f) the chicken and proceed with step 4Spicy Village serves it with your choice of noodles
Trexx
A lot of these notes are 2+years old or more. Instead of all of the fuss with oil frying the chicken, use an air fryer. Efficient and much easier, and neater.
Jennifer
I agree with a previous post, I stopped reading at 2 quarts of oil. Took a second look and stopped reading when I got to chop chicken into 2 inch pieces.
debdog
Some people are annoyed by cooks who write in with how to adjust a recipe to their liking. I LOVE it when people can come up with alternatives to deep fat frying. Health concerns, kitchen cleaning and what to do with used oil all are a problem for me. Thank you people.
Jacquie
In step one: are you using whole peppercorns or coarse ground black pepper? In step 5: can I grind the cumin and fennel seeds for the sauce or am I going to be crunching up seeds on eating this dish.I've never made anything like it and am willing to try making it but want this clarification first. Thanks.
Susan
Could the deep frying be avoided by using an air fryer?
Nick
I had this a few times at Spicy Village and then went vegetarian. Luckily the recipe becomes much easier if you skip the chicken frying and add tofu (or, even better, fried tofu) at step 5 or 6.Spicy Village serves it with your choice of noodles. Arguably the best (and certainly the easiest) version is with sweet potato noodles layered on top. But if you need something to do after omitted steps 1–3, use your time to make hand-pulled noodles instead.
Ben
Always loved the look of this recipe but never had everything on hand at one time. Also: I have celiac so the dietary restriction felt like a high bar to clear. But I riffed on it a bit and the end result got rave reviews. I marinated in hard kombucha; subbed in ssamjang for the fermented bean paste, fish sauce for soy, a bit of sherry instead of rice wine. Definitely use the MSG. Served with plain white rice — there were no leftovers. Five stars.
soy23
This was very mediocre for the amount of work it took. When I spend that much time prepping and cooking, I expect amazing results. Will not be making again
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