Jill Dupleix presents a dish she calls Bang Bang Chicken—a name I like because of the character Bang Bang in film The Brothers Bloom. I made it for the second time last night, because William came over and when I was out at the grocery store, I couldn’t think of anything else to make; this is perhaps because the first time I made it, it was so good. You can find the full video recipe on Dupleix’s DVD Good Cooking: The New Basics. Here I will just give you mom’s take on the recipe.
There are two parts: the salad and the sauce. They are both really easy.
Salad
Poach a couple of chicken breasts with some ginger, salt, chopped green onions in enough water to cover the chicken. Be careful here; if you just cover the chick, the water will evaporate and the top of the chicken will not cook (which is okay, just don’t use it). How long? I don’t know; until the chicken looks cooked; don’t over-cook it (whatever the hell that means). Set them aside and let the chicken sit in the pan with everything else while you do the rest of the cooking.
Julienne cut an English Cucumber, carrot, and celery stock. Why an English Cucumber instead of a regular one? It has fewer seeds and so is less bitter. Put all these cut vegetables together. By the way, I did all my chopping with a Santoku knife I just bought—I haven’t had a chance to use it enough to talk about it intelligently. Add to these vegetables (well, cucumber is a fruit, right?) some copped green onions, and a little bit of toasted sesame oil (yum), rice wine vinegar, and some sesame seeds—roasted if you like. Finally, remove the chicken from the water; shred the chicken into this bowl and toss that baby.
Sauce
In a mixing bowl, put in generous amounts of toasted sesame oil (yum, again), sweet chili sauce, and rice wine vinegar. Add even more peanut butter, soy sauce, and sugar. Finally, add a diced hot pepper to your taste; I used about a half a Jalapeño—I don’t care for food that is too hot. If you can get a red pepper, it adds a nice bit of color.
Mix this (what I admit sounds like an odd assortment of ingredients) until it is pretty smooth. Then pour it onto the vegetables (and fruits) and toss well. This is delicious and makes two servings (although at 125 lbs. I can eat it all myself; It’s that good).
