Bang Bang Chicken (Bang Bang Ji Si)
from http://traditionalchineserecipes.blogspot.com/

Bang Bang Chicken, served cold

Bang Bang Chicken or Chinese shredded chicken salad is a dish of Sichuan cuisine and is available in almost every restaurant selling Sichuan dishes. Bang Bang in Chinese literally mean wood bar and is the rolling pin used in daily Sichuan cooking. The mala sauce with Sichuan peppercorn powder is considered to be the best part of this dish, and in order to make the chicken meat absorb the spicy sauce as much as possible, the chicken meat is beaten by a rolling pin and then shredded.

Many recipes for this dish call for poached chicken: the recipe author prefers to steam breast meat, considering it to produce a more tender result. Also, various arrangements and garnishes are employed with bang bang ji; The author usually uses a bed of fen si, (bean thread noodles).

1 full chicken breast, bone in, skin on, split through breast bone
sesame oil for marinade
10 – 11 oz pickling cucumber
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chili paste
1 Tbsp. sugar
1-1/2 Tbsp. sesame oil
1-1/2 Tbsp. sesame paste (you can sub tahini or natural peanut butter)
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. Sichuan peppercorn, lightly toasted and ground
1 – 2 dried red chilis, chopped [such as Thai chilies]
1 Tbsp. ginger, finely minced
1 or 2 med cloves garlic, finely minced
2 green onions—white portion minced, green finely shreds for garnish
2 oz bean thread noodles (fen si - cellophane noodles)
Sesame seeds, lightly toasted

Wash and dry split breast and rub well with sesame oil. Steam 12 minutes with towels covering steamer trays and lid. After the 12 minutes, remove towels, and turn off heat. After 2 minutes remove from steamer completely and set aside to cool. When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin and slice into 1/2 " pieces if you wish to include it. Tear chicken breast flesh with the grain to produce 3/8 " by 2 or 3" shreds and set aside in the refrigerator.

Wash cucumbers; leaving skin on, split cucumbers lengthwise and scoop out seeds and pulp. Continue slicing cucumbers lengthwise into wedges splitting each wedge until it is approximately an eighth inch thick. Cut these wedges in half, so they are 1-1/2 inch or so long. In a bowl, toss with 1/2 tsp of salt and marinate two hours or so until water puddles in the bottom of the bowl. Drain cucumbers, rinse to wash away excess salt and dry with towel. Set aside.

In the meantime mix chili paste, sugar, sesame oil, sesame paste, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ground Sichuan peppercorn, dried chili, ginger, garlic and green onion. Mix very thoroughly to break up sesame paste lumps. Set aside.

Soak the bean thread noodles in hot tap water for 20 minutes; cut to 3" length if desired, and put in boiling water for 1 – 2 minutes. Remove, rinse with cold water and drain.

Create a bed of bean thread noodles on a serving plate. Scatter cucumbers over the noodles, allowing the noodles to show all around the edge. Heap the chicken shreds on top of the cucumbers and pour sauce in the middle of the mound, allowing some of the chicken to remain visible. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onion shreds.