With a current Sydney lockdown (and still no International travel on the cards for awhile) I am missing international food. A Taiwanese friend gave me this easy recipe which is so tasty, and easy to make, it’s a banging good dish!

Many years ago, I was flying from Australia to the United States via Asia. The flight transited Taipei and the airline (not from Taiwan), had a major international incident elsewhere. All of their flights were cancelled and we were put up in a hotel for the night. The hotel I was sent to turned out to be more of a ‘love hotel’ which would be generally booked by the hour, not by the night. There was a lot of banging on the walls that night, mostly from me trying to tell my room neighbours to keep quiet! In the morning there was banging at my door, it was my breakfast service, a sandwich with some strange looking meat in it.

This is such an easy recipe, other than some chicken from my freezer and basil from my garden, I had everything else in my pantry.

By the time they took us back to the airport I was starving. We had all been given a voucher for the airport food stalls the night before. I found mine buried between the pages of my passport and I went in search of something tasty and comforting. Guess what dish I found? Three Cup Chicken.

The original recipe calls for chicken thigh meat, but during lockdown, we all must make do, so I used drumsticks and they turned out banging great!

There was a long line at this food stall and in the line ahead of me was a person banging their fist on the counter, “I want my three cups of chicken!” they screamed. Those in the line, and I’m sure behind the counter, were eye-rollingly unimpressed with the uncultured display this person put on.

When it was cooked, I banged some down on the plate, served with some rice it was a stunning meal. OK, maybe not presentation wise but I reckon someone may come and bang on my walls for a serve of this!

The carry-on at the airport was grossly entertaining and yet the food I was served was entertainingly delicious. It’s not three cups of chicken, it’s three cup chicken! Sometime, somethings can be very simple – and take you less than an hour – while feeling comforted during this lockdown.

Stay safe people!

Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken

Ingredients:
8 chicken drumsticks
10-15 cloves of garlic
1 small piece of ginger, finely sliced
chili flakes
handful of basil, chopped
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup sweet soy sauce (kecup manis)
1/3 cup Chinese cooking wine
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Method:
Brown the chicken in a pan, add the garlic, ginger and chili flakes. Mix the wet ingredients together and pour over the chicken. Cover the pan and simmer until chicken is cooked through around 30 minutes for drumsticks. Toss the basil through the dish a minute or so prior to serving. Enjoy!