In 2010, I went to Sichuan, China for the first time and I was attracted by this authentic dish, this dish’s name is Benben Chicken and it is a very spicy dish. In this story, I will share with you how to make this dish and its story. Would you like to try this dish yourself at home? I will mark at the end where you can buy the ingredients in Kamloops.

Benben chicken in Richmond’s Chinese restaurant

Benben chicken is a kind of Sichuan traditional famous food, belongs to the Sichuan cuisine. It has been handed down from the Qing Dynasty to the present for hundreds of years. It is served in an earthenware bowl with spicy spices,  boneless chicken slices, and various meats, as well as various side dishes of your choice. It has the characteristics of crispy skin and tender meat, spicy and fresh, sweet and salty. Benben” means “pottery” in the Sichuan dialect, and is made by putting a variety of vegetables and meats on skewers, cooking them in boiling water, and then cooling them in a large pot with seasonings.

Now I will give you specific instructions on how to make Benben chicken. The first step is the preparation of the seasoning, which is roughly seasoned chili oil. First, we need to prepare the required spices: 100 grams of crushed chili pepper, five pieces of allspice leaves, two pieces of cinnamon, two pieces of herbs, 100g of peppercorns, five pieces of star anise, 150g of white sesame seeds, half of an onion, five stalks of cilantro, and one stalk of celery. We first need to cut the onion and celery into large pieces and remove the roots of the cilantro. We need to boil 500ml oil in a large pot, in oil there is a little smoke when the leaves, cinnamon, herb nuts, pepper, Chinese herbs are big ingredients into the oil pan, about 20 seconds after the vegetables (this step hot oil will splash!) When the vegetables are fried black, fish out all the ingredients, then put the crushed pepper and sesame seeds into a large bowl and pour the hot oil over the crushed pepper and sesame seeds, stirring in the process.

  After that put one spoon of vinegar when oil is still hot. Let the oil cool, add one tablespoon of chicken powder, three tablespoons of cooking oil, two tablespoons of soy sauce, and two tablespoons of sugar. There is no need to put salt because the oil and chicken powder and soy sauce are salty. This is how to make Benben chicken sauce. For the side dishes, we need to prepare some of our favorite meat and vegetables. For example beef, pancetta, chicken, luncheon meat, seaweed, potatoes, etc. Put these vegetables on skewers. We need to boil a pot of boiling water, put the skewers into the boiling water, cook them, take them out, and let them cool, then put them into the sauce and they are ready to use. This dish is very spicy. When you eat it, you need to remove the vegetables from the skewers and eat them with rice afterward, which will make it less spicy as well as filling.

 We can buy all the ingredients we need at Superstore and Eastuffgrocery (1023A McGill Rd).

Reference

Mouthwatering Snacks in Chengdu! Part-1 Posted on August 30, 2016, by China Tour Advisors from https://chinatouradvisor.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/mouthwatering-snacks-in-chengdu-part-1/

Outline: 

1: The goal of my story is to introduce the audience to a very authentic and easy-to-make Sichuan-style Chinese dish: Benben Chicken. I will explain the history of this Chinese dish as well as the general preparation method and where to buy the ingredients to make it in Kamloops.

2: My audience is firstly Chinese food lovers who like Sichuan-style Chinese food, and secondly locals who have some knowledge of Chinese food, and this will introduce them to authentic Chinese food other than American Chinese food.

3: My core information comes from my own experience, as well as from conversations I’ve had with chefs at the restaurants I work at, and the internet. I’ll mark this information in the text as coming from sources other than myself, and for internet information, I’ll write down references in APA format.