I love the name. Bang Bang.
It sets off that song in my head, I think Cher or Nancy Sinatra sang it…maybe they both did.
This dish is nothing like the song. Of course.
If you google it, you’ll find a few recipes for this one on line. Most use satay sauce or processed sauce mixes, I’m doing mine from scratch- partly because I’m doing a bit of a gluten free, anti candida-y thing (although strictly speaking, the soy sauce and vinegar are not allowed in the first stage of most anti candida diets)…I’m taking a little of this and a little of that to see what suits my tummy. I saw the perfect word for it today- flexitarian.
Anyways, the recipe.
This one is from Adam Liaw’s latest book Asian After Work- I was lucky enough to score it for Christmas.
If you use tamari instead of soy, it’s gluten free…it’s also super quick to have on the table- he estimated prep at 15 minutes, cooking 20…we prepped the salad garnish as the chicken was steaming, so the timing was about right.
We also ooomphed up the salad with some rocket leaves, but next time we’ve decided we’ll stick to the basic salad and toss through vermicelli noodles- perhaps with some cherry tomatoes- just to stop my husband from running for a piece of toast later.
Also, we’re into chilli kicks, so I threw in a couple of seeded and diced chillis (from the garden) into the dressing. Oh…because I’m doing the anti candida thingie, I left out the sugar…I know, I know…flexitarian…remember?
And don’t be scared off by the Asian ingredients. We’re lucky enough to have a great Asian grocer in our suburb, but most are stocked by the major supermarkets these days, and are handy to keep in the pantry.
what it looked like in the book
What you need
(serves 2)
2 small chicken breasts, or thighs…preferably from happy while they were alive free range chooks
1 continental cucumber- peeled, de-seeded, and cut into matchsticks
2-3 spring onions- trimmed and sliced lengthways finely
The dressing
2 tsp sichuan peppercorns
1/3 cup white sesame seeds
3 tsp caster sugar
3 tsp Chinkiang black vinegar
3 tsp light soy sauce, or tamari
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp hot chilli oil (Adam very handily provides a great recipe for this…which I’ll get around to making. We used an over the counter chilli oil)
What you do with it
There’s a little fancy footwork to be done with the peppercorns and sesame seeds- toast them in a dry frypan until they’re golden brown…you’ll need to watch them. Then grind in a mortar and pestle- or is that pestle and mortar?
Add the rest of the dressing ingredients and combine.
I steamed the chicken over a low heat- we have a large wok sized steamer pan, so it’s seriously easy. It was done in about 15 minutes.
If steaming is out of the question for you, cook the chicken however you’d normally cook a chicken breast- you won’t get the clean, moistness you get from steaming, but the result will still be good.
Now for the bang bang part.
With something heavy- rolling pin, mallet, flat side of a heavy knife- bash the chicken a little so the fibres separate. No matter how bad a day you’ve had, try not to pulverise it.
Now tear or slice the chicken into thin shreds, and toss the dressing through it, making sure you’ve evenly coated it.
Serve with the cucumber and spring onions.
Done.
Low carb, gluten free, completely yummy
Naturally all rights to the original author…
how ours looked
