Guaiwei Ji

This is also called Bang Bang Ji or just Bang Bang Chicken.

It was difficult to find the ingredients, but after searching for a few hours in two Asian grocery stores I got everything needed. I live in a moderately populated area with a very low Asian population. On the plus side, I now know where to find licorice root powder so maybe next month I will try to make black licorice.

I wasn’t really expecting this much difficulty. A lot of it is available on Amazon but is 2-3 times the price as I got them by shopping locally.

Two of the ingredients, I made from scratch and will link to the recipes at the end of this.

Guaiwei Ji

1 cup sesame paste
1/2 - 1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup Chinese black vinegar
1/2 cup toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp ground Sichuan pepper
1/3 - 1 cup chili oil
2 Tbsp white sesame seeds
6 boneless chicken breasts, chopped or sliced
  1. In a bowl mix all of the ingredients except the chicken.
  2. Cook the chicken
  3. Serve in a bowl and cover it with the liquid mixture
  4. Alternatively, you can add 2 Tbsp cornstarch to the mixture.
  5. Drain the fat from the chicken and add the sauce
  6. Heat until the sauce boils and thickens
  7. Serve over rice

Edit

Here are links to the chili oil and sesame paste recipes.

It is really easy to make, I prefer the alternative method as it is not so soupy.

The amount of soy sauce depends on how much you like it, I prefer it with less.

1 cup of chili oil with a lot of crushed chili is perfect in terms or spiciness, but I like really hot food.

There are several ingredients that can be substituted if you can not find them.

Peanut or almond butter can be used in place of sesame paste. It is cheaper and easy to make from scratch.

Chili oil is commercially available, if you can find one with sediment, that is better. No sediment if you want it less spicy.

Beef, pork, fish or even tofu would be okay with this.