Shenzhen Chicken Pot: a Cantonese-Sichuan Fusion | Chinese Cooking Demystified

Shenzhen chicken pot! An interesting take on a Cantonese classic, this version adds chilis, chili bean paste, and some Sichuan spices to the mix.

Apologies for the especially long backstory for this one. After calling Shenzhen home for over a decade... apparently I have a lot to say on the subject of Shenzhen haha. As always, feel free to jump to the recipe using the chapters:

0:00 - The Shenzhen Story
1:07 - The Hong Kong Influence on the city
2:02 - Food in Shenzhen, these days
3:28 - The Origins of Shenzhen Chicken Pot
5:06 - Preparing the Chicken
6:30 - Preparing the Sauce
7:19 - Making the Pot
8:08 - How to Hotpot It
9:08 - Is Shenzhen Chicken Pot spicy?

I'll get to some more credits and links in a bit, but first I wanted to say a huge thanks to our buddy Sky for letting us use so much of his Shenzhen footage (the drone shots and such were his). Definitely check out his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skythomasgidge/

The movies that were used in the introduction were Shanghai Dreams, A Touch of Sin, From Beijing with Love, and Italianamerican.

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HOTPOT: simply follow the recipe as is, but instead of finishing on the portable burner at the table, do that final fry/roast process in the kitchen. Same medium flame, same 8-10 minutes. Serve in your cast iron/clay pot, or alternatively transfer over to a serving plate.

INGREDIENTS

Sourcing notes:

The chili bean paste we’re referring to is Sichuan Pixian Doubanjiang. You can find it at your local Chinese supermarket, on Weee!, or over at Mala Market if you’re in the market for a fancy one:

https://www.sayweee.com/en/product/Pixian-Bean-Paste-with-Chili-Oil/12189
https://themalamarket.com/products/3-year-aged-pixian-chili-bean-paste-doubanjiang

Hoisin can be found at most Chinese supermarkets, of course (and some Western supermarkets these days). But if you’re wondering why ours looked a little weird, it’s because we used this one:

https://themalamarket.com/products/guangwei-yuan-hoisin-sauce

You can also use Lee Kum Kee, of course (which we also tested with). We just happened to have this one on hand.

For the fermented tofu, the precise brand that we use in the video should be available at many Chinese supermarkets, but it proving a touch challenging to find online. I was able to find a Taiwanese version of the product on Amazon (for the expected Amazon premium), but you can also use the sort that’s seasoned with a bit of chili with this recipe (which I was able to find on Weee!):

https://www.sayweee.com/en/product/Yanan-Bridge-Kaiping-Fermented-Bean-Curd-with-Chilli/23994
https://www.amazon.com/White-Fermented-Chunk-Seasoning-Sauce/dp/B07GQ74NH2

Chu Hou paste should be able to be found at your local Chinese supermarket, on Amazon (for the expected Amazon premium) or on Weee:

https://www.sayweee.com/en/product/Koon-Chun-Chee-Hou-Sauce-/62889
https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Kum-Kee-Paste-8-5oz/dp/B07P61FPJB/

Ingredients:

* Chicken -or- chicken wings, 1kg
* Marinade for the chicken: salt, 1/2 tsp; white pepper powder (白胡椒粉), 1/2 tsp; soy sauce (生抽), 1 tbsp; liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1 tbsp; cornstarch (生粉), 1 tbsp; oil, to coat, ~1 tbsp
* Sauce: Soy sauce (生抽), 1.5 tbsp; Liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1 tbsp; Natural Peanut Butter (花生酱), 0.5 tbsp; Chili Bean Paste (郫县豆瓣酱), 0.5 tbsp; Furu a.k.a. fermented bean curd (腐乳), 1 cube; white pepper powder (白胡椒粉), ½ tsp; five spice powder (五香粉), ¼ tsp; Sichuan peppercorn powder (花椒粉), ¼ tsp; chicken bouillon powder (鸡粉), ¼ tsp; MSG (味精), 1/8 tsp; salt, 1/8 tsp; hoisin sauce (海鲜酱), 1 tbsp; Chu Hou paste (柱侯酱) -or- additional Hoisin, 0.5 tbsp; water, 6 tbsp
* Onion, ½; cut into slices. Half will be used to fry at first, half later to finish the pot
* Shallots (干葱), 2, quartered
* Garlic, ~4 cloves, smashed
* Ginger, ~1 inch, smashed
* Hot dried chilis – we used heaven facing (朝天椒) - ~6
* Oil, to fry, ~4 tbsp

Ok! So additional credits. More street footage of Shenzhen (because I apparently didn’t get enough) is from HSBS LKS, who has some great walking clips on their channel. Definitely check them out – I used these clips from Dongmen:

https://youtu.be/pWUH7ZgOFQM
https://youtu.be/__9r5ZjwIVE

Also, huge thank you to Blondie in China, who continuously lets us use some of her footage if need be. Definitely check out her channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BlondieinChina

Picture of the Tencent building was via Chris Yunker: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chris-yunker/31551687773

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http://www.patreon.com/ChineseCookingDemystified

Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ
Found via My Analog Journal (great channel): https://youtu.be/GHaL5H-VYRg