On the Side: The gift of Chan's chicken

James Chan was up out of his seat before I got within 10 paces of his table at a dim sum place on Washington Avenue. He wanted to tell me about a favorite recipe of his, peanut vinegar chicken. A friend was making a YouTube video of it. (To see it, go to

» READ MORE: http://go.philly.com/chan

.)

Chan is a business consultant, and a more than merely avid Chinese home cook. He is something of an evangelist on the subject: When he has a winner, he wants to share it with the world.

So, yes, I said, please e-mail me the peanut vinegar chicken recipe. And he did. And it is just terrific; I made it a few Sundays ago, improvising on some of the ingredients. I used the raw cashews I had instead of peanuts, and a few dashes of sriracha chile sauce to substitute for the red chile peppers.

I can guarantee I'll be making it again, the tender chicken mildly sour from the vinegar, the nuts chewy, the scallions crisp: It's hard to stop eating once you get going.

It's a joy to find a recipe like this, to add it to the repertoire of things you make again and again - cooking that is doable, understandable, affordable, flavorful, and a few degrees off the usual.

Things like spinach-mushroom lasagna or Kansas City steak soup, five-ingredient chicken paprikash or simple Provençal fish stew. Peanut Vinegar Chicken will fit nicely in the lineup, a new recruit.

I asked James Chan how he came across it. He found it, he said, in a book on regional Chinese cooking by Kenneth H.C. Lo that he picked up in a shopping mall in the 1980s. He later gave the cookbook away to a client, and it's now out of print. But he'd made the recipe so frequently by then that he'd memorized it.

He has made it more than 200 times over the last 20 years, always to great applause. It takes five minutes to cook - well, after a fair amount of prep work.

The one small downside? Guests have been known to flee the house during the sizzling of the hot red chile peppers; they give off something akin to pepper-spray fumes.

Be sure, he says, to put on the kitchen fan.

Or do what I did: Squirt in a little hot sauce instead.

A few tips: Use only the freshest scallions. Use raw peanuts or cashews, not previously roasted nuts. Red dried chile peppers should be de-seeded by breaking off their "heads" and shaking them out. They add drama to the dish, and color, but you can sub in red pepper flakes or hot sauce. Be generous with salt or soy sauce. Thighs tend to be more tender then breasts. Make a pot of rice beforehand. Serve with a green vegetable if you wish - stir-fried broccoli, green beans, bok choy, whatever.

Makes 4 servings

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1 egg white, beaten

5 tablespoons peanut oil (or canola), divided use

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sesame oil,

divided use

2 tablespoons cornstarch, divided use

1 pound boneless chicken breasts or thighs

6 scallions, including green parts

1 cup skinless raw peanuts

4 to 6 dried red chiles (or pepper flakes or hot sauce)

4 tablespoons vinegar (malt, red wine, or Chinese)

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup chicken broth

3 tablespoons soy sauce

Salt and pepper, to taste

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1. In large bowl, combine the beaten egg white, 2 tablespoons peanut oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, and 1 tablespoon cornstarch.

2. Cut the boneless chicken breasts or thighs into one-quarter-inch strips. Add to the bowl and combine thoroughly. (Chan uses his hands to do this.) Set aside.

3. Clean fresh scallions, cut off tips and ends, slice into inch-long pieces. Set aside.

4. In dry skillet or wok, toast the peanuts until brown, but not charred. Crush coarsely in mortar or with rolling pin or nut grinder. Set aside.

5. In small mixing bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sugar, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, chicken broth, 3 teaspoons cornstarch, 3 tablespoons soy sauce. Set aside.

6. Remove the seeds of the dried red peppers and crack into large pieces so you can see them in the finished dish; they are for flavor, not to be eaten.

7. Heat the skillet or wok to medium high. Add three tablespoons of peanut oil. Toss in the dried pepper and stir until it begins to blacken. (Turn on the kitchen fans; the fumes can cause sneezing!)

8. After about a minute, pour in the chicken. Turn up the heat and stir briskly with spatula for about two minutes until the meat is about half done.

9. Add about a quarter of the scallion and a quarter of the toasted peanuts, stirring for another minute over high heat.

10. Add a quarter of the vinegar mixture; whisk it first to incorporate any cornstarch that may have settled. Keep stirring the chicken.

11. Pour in the rest of the scallions, peanuts, and remaining vinegar mixture. Stir for no more than 1 more minute. (The entire cooking should take about 5 minutes.)

12. Serve immediately over white or brown rice, and with any greens (I made a cucumber salad) that you wish.

Per serving: 550 calories, 37 grams protein, 16 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams sugar, 39 grams fat, 77 milligrams cholesterol, 525 milligrams sodium, 5 grams dietary fiber.

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