Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serving: 4-8 people

7/26/26: Three Cup Chicken is one of my favorite Taiwanese cuisine I first had from Genroku Taiwanese Restaurant in Richardson, Texas located near Good Fortune Supermarket in the Chinatown Plaza.

This cuisine is very simple and easy to make too! Traditional version uses boneless chicken thigh meat but my kids and I like chicken wings. So chicken wings is what I use for this recipe. Here is my inspiration from the garden to the kitchen visual.

Tools I Used:

I used a 3-inch deep pan and a 14-inch Hexclad wok to cook this dish, and a 1/3 measuring cup.

Ingredients:

1 family pack chicken wings
1/4 cup Roasted Sesame Oil
1/3 cup Mirin Rice Wine (not vinegar)
1/3 cup Lee Kum Kee Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup fresh Thai basil leaves
1 garlic bulb
2 Tbsp sliced ginger or 2 tsp ground ginger powder
1/16th tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp sugar
2/3 cup water
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3 chili peppers (optional)

Cooking Direction:

1.. Prep the chicken wings. In a 3-inch deep pan, I placed the chicken wings in and fill the pan up with water. Bring the pan to a boil and blanch chicken for about ten minutes. Strain the chicken in the colander. Set aside.

2. Prep the sauce mixture. In a small bowl (ramekin), pour in 1/3 cup sesame oil (reserve two tablespoon of sesame oil and set aside). Then add in 1/3 cup soy sauce and 1/3 cup Mirin Sweet Rice Wine. I added one tablespoon of Lee Kum Kee premium Dark Soy Sauce so that the chicken wings have a nice dark brown color.

Note: I tasted the mixture at this point and felt like asking one tablespoon of sugar to balance out the sweet and savory flavor.

(Remember to peel the garlic gloves, sliced the ginger if not using ginger powder, chopped the bunching onions and wash the Thai basil leaves before getting ready to cook.)

In my 14-inch wok, I heat up 2 tablespoon of sesame oil and sear the garlic cloves until it is golden. Once the garlic turns golden, I dumped the blanched chicken wings into the wok. Then I pour in the sauce mixture and 2/3 cup of water.

I set the timer for 15 minutes and cook the chicken on medium heat. (Remember to stir the chicken every five minutes.)

After fifteen minutes, I added in cornstarch slurry (2 Tbsp water + 2 Tbsp corn starch mixed evenly). Stir the meat so that the cornstarch mixture coated the chicken nicely.