Mala chicken

Method

1. 1 Cut the chicken into 2 cm pieces and marinate with soy sauce, ginger, and cornstarch for 30 minutes.
2. 2 Fry the chicken in oil at 175 degrees for 4 minutes, then remove, raise the oil to 195 degrees and fry again for 45 seconds until the crust is crispy.
3. 3 Drain off excess oil, then roast the dried chilies with Sichuan peppercorns over low heat for 2 minutes, until the chilies darken but are not burnt.
4. 4 Add minced garlic and chicken to a pan and stir-fry over high heat for 90 seconds with sugar and soy sauce.
5. 5 Sprinkle with roasted sesame seeds; the ratio of chili peppers to meat is true Sichuan style because chili peppers here are for flavor, not for eating.

With an appliance

• Air fryer 43 min

  Replace step 2: thoroughly spray oil onto the chicken pieces, air fry at 190 degrees for 10 minutes, flip at the 6th minute, then increase the temperature to 205 degrees for another 2 minutes; steps 3 to 5 continue to tossing the chili peppers and stirring the chicken in the pan.