Gan Guo Ji (Dry Pot Chicken)

Name: Gan Guo Ji (Dry Pot Chicken)
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: Serves 3–4
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 800 g bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks, cut to the 3 cm pieces; 1 tbsp (15 ml) Shaoxing wine, 1 tsp (5 g) salt, ½ tsp (2 g) white pepper — the 30-minute toss; 80 ml neutral oil; 2½ tbsp (35 g) doubanjiang, mashed; 15 whole dried chillies, snipped; 1 tbsp (8 g) Sichuan peppercorns; 1 tsp (3 g) cumin seeds; 2 bay leaves; 1 tbsp (10 g) ginger, sliced; 5 cloves garlic, sliced; 1 onion, wedged; 200 g lotus root, sliced thin; 200 g potato, sliced thin and par-boiled 4 minutes; 150 g celery, lengths; 100 g mushroom halves (the button's or the shiitake's argument); 1 tbsp (15 ml) light soy, 1 tbsp (15 g) sugar, ½ tsp (2 g) salt; 2 tbsp (30 ml) chilli oil with the sediment; the spring onion's and coriander's scatter; the sesame's spoon

Chinese · Medium · Serves 3–4

The dry pot family's whole-bird register: the chicken's bone-in pieces at the spice oil's full cabinet — the #58 master's coating law at the whole bird's fierce argument — the lotus root's and potato's stained crunch and the chilli's whole crown at the one dry pot's loaded table. The technique rides the family's shared doctrine (the bloom, the staged moisture's flash, the coating's cling) at the chicken's longer clock and the bone-in's deeper savour.

Quantities live in the recipe card.

The chicken

the 30-minute toss

The spice oil's build (the #58 law)

The pot's loaded vegetables

The finish

- The family's shared laws (the #58 master's doctrine): the wok's 230 °C preheat before the oil, the spice base's 60-second bloom at the moderate's patience, and the staged additions' discipline — each vegetable's moisture flashed before the next joins, the coating's cling the whole pot's one law.

Step 1. The chicken's fry and the spice oil's bloom — 10 minutes. The spice oil's 5-minute bloom at the moderate's patience (the #58/#134 law), and the chicken's pieces through the brick-red oil's 5-minute tossing fry at the fierce flame — the skin's crisp-lacquer set and the flesh's colour turned. Checkpoint — the chicken's pieces run the spice oil's stained lacquer at the skin's crisp argument — the bone-in's deeper savour the family's chicken register's own identity, and the pale piece the bloom's or the clock's honest diagnosis.

Step 2. The staged vegetables and the coating's cling — 5 minutes at the fierce flame. The par-boiled lotus and potato's 90-second stain-fry, the celery's and mushroom's 60-second throw, and the soys and sugar's flick — the chilli oil's crown and the sesame's spoon off the flame, the spring onion's scatter. Checkpoint — the eating test: the chicken's lacquered, bone-in bite (the coating's cling at every crevice — the pot's floor bare at the sheen's law, the #58 doctrine) with the lotus's and potato's stained crunch — the numbing-fire's full depth at the one loaded table. Chef’s Note — the chicken's longer clock is the family's whole-bird arithmetic: the bone-in piece's 5-minute fry (against the shrimp's 90 seconds and the cauliflower's staged flash) runs the spice oil's coating at the bone's deeper savour — the collagen's and the skin's own richness the coating's foundation — and the par-boiled vegetables' later argument the one pot's staged clock at the whole bird's register. The #58 master's loaded doctrine and the #84 cauliflower's single-vegetable focus the one family's two other seats.