How to make this easy Mala Zi Ji, or Sichuan-style crispy Fried Chicken stir fried with Dried Chillies and Sichuan Peppercorns.
Mala Zi Ji or Sichuan Dried Chilli Fried Chicken is unbelievably easy to make! Mala Zi Ji is a rather strange dish. A plate full of dried chillies, with speckles of fried chicken… if you’ve not had this before, it looks intimidating! You might also wonder what you’re supposed to eat.
You’re just suppose to fish out the fried chicken bits, which has a slightly roasty heat from the dried chillies, and the numbing tingle from the sichuan peppercorns. The chicken bits itself are not that spicy, although if you want more spice, eat it with the dried chillies.
I see this dish served at a lot of Sichuan restaurants in Singapore and I had to attempt a version at home. Perusing a few recipes online, I scaled down on the ingredients to come up with this simple, yet flavourful recipe.
What Chicken Parts to Use for Mala Zi Ji
The authentic recipe uses chopped up chicken wings into tiny pieces. When you fish the chicken bits out, there will usually be pieces of bone within. The “fun” is in fishing out the chicken bits AND the bony parts. I think, lol. If you want to experience this yourself, then all you do is chop up some wings!
My preferred method is to use boneless chicken thighs. Or breasts will work here too. Chop the chicken parts into tiny cubes. To cut it easier, do this while the chicken is still frozen – this was a tip I picked up from one of you!
The Fried Chicken Pieces for Mala Zi Ji
In this recipe, I gave the chicken pieces a light coating and shallow or pan fried them. My chicken pieces are slightly crispy, because of the method I used.
I preferred this since it’s a lot easier to make at home – and more practical. I don’t generally like using a lot of oil for deep-frying, most certainly not for this small amount! The chicken bits will still be insanely delicious and addictive, even without the extra crispiness, trust me on this. My recipe allows you to just use the same one pan to fry the chicken, AND make the final dish. Your post clean-up will also be much easier.
If you want a crispier chicken? No problem! Before frying the chicken, coat the chicken pieces in more potato or cornstarch before deep frying it. While my chicken pieces are “wet”, you should coat yours until it’s not wet.
That said, if you want a healthier and an even more shortcut dish, skip the chicken pre-frying altogether. Add chicken to the pan first and stir fry to cook, before tossing in the rest of the ingredients.
Key Ingredients for Mala Zi Ji
The ingredients for this Ma La Zi Ji is incredibly minimal! There are only two key ingredients for this:
Dried Chillies
Sichuan Dried Chillies would be most authentic, but it is easily replaceable with any other dried chillies! I use the same dried chilli that I use to make my homemade dried chilli paste. These would commonly be Spur chillies, or Kashmiri chillies.
With the Spur and Kashmiri chillies, I rinsed them under running water to clean it. I also poured boiling water over them just to soften them, but this is optional.
With Sichuan Dried Chillies are typically shorter, so you can leave them whole. Spur and Kashmiri dried chillies tend to be longer, so I like to cut them up into smaller pieces. You can also control the heat this way – discard the seeds for a milder dish or let the seeds run free in the dish for maximum spice!
Sichuan Peppercorns
Which dried chillies can be easily replaceable, not Sichuan Peppercorns! Sichuan Peppercorns are unique in its flavour: numbing, tingly with an almost floral citrus scent. No other peppercorns can give you this flavour. Therefore try to find Sichuan Peppercorns! Fortunately, they are easily available in Singapore these days, and online as well.
I used just ginger slices for this, but you can add garlic into the mix as well.
How to Serve Mala Zi Ji
Mala Zi Ji should be served with some rice to temper the heat! I also love serving this with some saucy Mapo Tofu and an easy vegetable stir fry. If my organisation is good (it’s usually not) I would even whip up a quick cucumber cold appetizer.
That said, Mala Zi Ji is amazing even by itself! It’s a great snack – like popcorn lol – to serve while catching up on some Netflix. There’s a fun in picking out the meat bits!
More Recipes Like This
Mala Zi Ji | Sichuan Dried Chilli Fried Chicken
4
servings10
minutes15
minutesIngredients
- Crispy Chicken Bites
300g Chicken, boneless thighs or breasts, diced
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp White Pepper
1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 tsp Oyster Sauce
1 tbsp Potato Starch or Cornstarch
3-4 tbsps Oil for shallow frying
- Mala Zi Ji
1 inch Ginger, sliced
2 tbsps of Sichuan Peppercorns
1 full cup of Dried Chillies
1 tsp Sugar
1 tbsp Spring Onions, chopped
1 tsp Sesame Seeds
Directions
- Shallow Frying Chicken
- Add salt, pepper, soy sauce and oyster sauce to chicken and massage in. Then add potato starch and massage in chicken to coat. Allow to marinade for about 15 mins or while you prepare the other ingredients.
- Add oil to pan and heat over medium heat. Once hot, gently add the marinated chicken. Spread out chicken in pan to cook evenly, do not overlap the pieces. Allow to fry and turn golden on one side, before flipping over the other side to cook through.
- Once chicken is cooked through and golden brown on both sides, take it off the oil and keep to one side. Option to drain excess oil on paper towels.
- Making La Zi Ji
- Using the same pan, there should still be some oil leftover. Remove or add oil if needed, you need about 2-3 tbsps of oil.
- Over low heat, add ginger, sichuan peppercorns and the dried chillies. Continuously stir fry until fragrant. You should be able to smell the floral citrus of the sichuan peppercorns and the roasted chillies.
- Add back the fried chicken and sugar and toss through to combine.
- Add spring onions and sesame seeds and toss through.
- Mala Zi Ji is done!
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zi?
dish is normally called mala-ji. which “zi” are u inserting there?
This dish can be known as ‘mala ji’ or ‘la zi ji’. Here it’s more commonly known as ‘la zi ji’.