Mouth-Watering Chicken

Mouth-watering chicken (koushui ji) is one of the canonical cold dishes of Sichuan cuisine, a starter that appears at the beginning of nearly every banquet and sets the register for everything that follows. The name is not a boast; it is a description of the physiological effect the sauce has on the palate before the first bite.

The chicken is poached in a simple aromatics broth — ginger, scallion, Shaoxing wine, sometimes star anise — until just cooked through, then cooled in the poaching liquid. Cooling in the liquid is important: it keeps the meat moist and prevents the skin from tightening. The chicken is then jointed or sliced, bone-in, and arranged on a plate with the skin intact.

The sauce is assembled separately and poured over at service. The components: house-made red chilli oil (the foundation), Sichuan peppercorn oil or ground Sichuan peppercorn, dark soy sauce, a small amount of black rice vinegar, sesame paste or tahini, garlic paste, ginger paste, sugar, and sesame seeds. Crushed roasted peanuts are often scattered over the top. Each Sichuan restaurant maintains its own ratios, but the key characteristic is the mala profile — the simultaneous hot (from chilli) and numb (from peppercorn) sensation — balanced against sweetness and acid.

The dish is similar to bang bang chicken (a Sichuan variant using shredded chicken and a sauce of more similar composition) but distinguishable by the bone-in serving and by the use of a more complex, darker sauce. The sauce for koushui ji tends to be more layered and slightly more aggressive in its chilli and peppercorn application.

At a Sichuan banquet, this arrives as part of the cold-dish opening round alongside beef tendon, smashed cucumber, and similar preparations. The cold temperature and the mala sauce together prepare the palate for the hot dishes that follow. It is also served as a standalone dish at Sichuan restaurants and appears regularly on menus across China wherever Sichuan-style cooking is practised.