Bang Bang Chicken, the 10-Minute Way (Bang Bang Ji)
Sichuan's famous cold chicken with sesame-chili sauce — made with a store rotisserie chicken and zero cooking.
The story
Bang bang chicken gets its name from the wooden stick used to bash poached chicken into shreds. The street version demands an hour of poaching; the honest weeknight version starts with a supermarket rotisserie chicken, and nobody has ever complained.
Ingredients (6 + pantry staples)
- Rotisserie chicken — half, shredded by hand
- Chinese sesame paste or peanut butter — 2 tbsp
- Soy sauce — 1.5 tbsp
- Black vinegar — 1 tbsp
- Chili oil or chili crisp — 1 tbsp
- Cucumber — 1, shredded
Pantry staples used (don't count toward the 6): sugar (1 tsp), garlic (1 clove, grated). Not stocked yet? See the pantry page.
Steps
- Whisk the sauce: sesame paste, soy, vinegar, chili oil, sugar, garlic and 3 tbsp hot water until pourable.
- Bed of cucumber shreds on a plate; pile the chicken on top.
- Pour the sauce over. Serve cold.
Swaps
The sauce is the dish — it also transforms plain noodles and blanched greens into Sichuan salads.
More 10-minute dishes
Smashed Cucumber Salad (Pai Huang Gua)
The most-ordered cold starter in China takes 8 minutes and requires you to attack a vegetable with a blunt object.
Egg & Seaweed Drop Soup (Zi Cai Dan Hua Tang)
The default weeknight soup of a billion people: 7 minutes, 4 ingredients, zero knife work.
Blanched Greens with Oyster Sauce (Bai Zhuo)
The Cantonese technique that makes any green vegetable taste like a $18 restaurant side.