Three-Cup Chicken

Zhu’s three cup chicken is a Taiwanese-style braise known as san bei ji. Her selected wing version builds a glossy sauce from sesame oil, Shaoxing wine, soy and brown sugar, with ginger, garlic and Thai basil providing its fragrance.

Thin ginger slices cook slowly in sesame oil until their edges begin to brown and curl. Smashed garlic cloves and dried chillies follow, creating the aromatic base before the wings are browned on both sides.

Shaoxing wine loosens the browned bits from the pan, then soy sauce and brown sugar coat the chicken. The wings simmer under a lid before uncovered cooking reduces the liquid into a sauce that clings to them.

Thai basil enters near the end of the selected detailed recipe. It cooks briefly as the sauce becomes thick and glossy, then the chicken moves onto a serving plate.

The recipe serves the chicken hot over steamed rice. Zhu also describes sharing it with other dishes at a family-style meal, where diners spoon the sauce over their rice.