The First Dish To Try If You're New To Sichuan Cooking, According To A Chef

When most of us think of Sichuan cuisine, spicy hot pots, chili-oil spiced dan dan noodles, and kung pao chicken probably come to mind. As one of China's most globally popular cuisines, Sichuan cooking encompasses countless dishes that you can make at home. We asked a Chinese American chef and expert what the first dish to try should be if you're new to Sichuan cooking. Shirley Chung suggested a lesser-known dish that's both easy to make and representative of Sichuan culinary traditions and flavors.

Chef Chung said, "Water boiled beef/meat (spicy oil poached beef) is the first dish I would recommend for beginners to make. As long as you learn to properly velvet the meat, this dish is fast and easy to make."

Water boiled beef or spicy oil poached beef is known in Chinese as shuizhu niurou and encompasses not only Sichuan ingredients, but also cooking methods developed in the Sichuan province. It's a well-rounded dish that consists of vegetables, thinly sliced beef, and the numbing chilies that the Sichuan province is so famous for. While boiling beef may sound like a strange concept, the process is actually about poaching strips of beef cut against the grain in an aromatic broth (not plain water), and only delicately cooking them to ensure a tender texture and a flavorful infusion. The broth is initially heated to a boil before adding the beef, reducing the heat, and gently simmering for a few minutes until the beef is just cooked through. The objective with this technique beef is to lock in its tenderness fast in preparation for a spicy chili oil finish.

Chef Shirley Chung talks about velveting meat, which encompasses the preparation and technique of boiling the beef. Proper practices involve coating thinly sliced beef in a light batter of cornstarch or baking soda and egg white with a dash of soy and oyster sauce to create a tasty protective coating. This coating will seal the moisture and prevent the beef from becoming tough during the flavor infusion. Before the beef is added to the liquid however, the dish first calls for cooking vegetables to create the foundation for the meat. It also makes this dish a well-rounded, one-pot meal to serve alongside a bowl of steamed rice.

Crispy vegetables like celery, Chinese cabbage, and bean sprouts often comprise the veggie base — which is boiled in some recipes and fried in others — but some recipes also include types of mushrooms like umami-rich oyster or enoki mushrooms. You'll boil the beef in an aromatic broth you develop in a wok, using ginger, garlic, chili bean paste, and Sichuan chilies. You can use water or beef stock to add to those ingredients. The broth is not only the poaching liquid for the beef, but it's also the saucy part of the dish because you'll pour both the beef and the broth over the bed of vegetables. Finally, you'll create the all-important chili oil by frying red chilies and those uniquely numbing Sichuan peppercorns in a few tablespoons of oil before pouring it sizzling over the brothy beef and vegetables. While there are various preparation steps involved in making the dish, it only takes 20 minutes to cook.