Joe's Shanghai's 辣子鸡丁 ?

[BaiMianBao]

In NYC I've had a dish at Joe's Shanghai (both the Flushing and Chinatown one) they call "辣子鸡丁" or "Diced Chicken & Cucumber with Hot Pepper" under their poultry section. I really enjoyed it and I'd like to make it at home but am not sure how to go about it. Googling the english name returns the restaurant's menu while searching for the chinese name returns mostly Chicken & Nuts recipes. Should I just adapt one of those to add cucumbers? Any ideas? Has anyone had this dish before and tried to make it? Thanks!

[imron]

Not sure I've seen it with cucumbers. The literal translation of the Chinese is something like chilli-peppers and chicken, and usually it looks something like this:

The recipe in Chinese can be found here (tried hunting a bit for an English version, but didn't come up with anything suitable). I'd just try adapting that to add cucumbers.

[Xiao Kui]

Joe Shanghai's soup dumplings are pretty good, but when I was there a month ago (Flushing location) the other 2 dishes I ordered from their menu were craptacular and inauthentic to say the least. When they made the Kung Pao Chicken it looked like they just tossed a can of planters on top, and it was missing huajiao or Sichuan Peppers. They also majorly screwed up another Sichuan dish: ganbian siji dou, a kind of green bean dish. I may go again sometime to try their other dishes, but in the meantime Joe Shanghai's is one of the most overrated restaurants I've been to. - definitely steer clear of their Szechuan offerings - the chef doesn't have a clue.

[bhchao]

The xiao long bao at Joe Shanghai's in Flushing is mediocre. There is a Taiwanese restaurant on Prince Street with much better xiao long bao.

I agree that Joe Shanghai's is overrated.

[chaxiu]

Try this one:

http://schneiderchen.de/5Diced-Chicken-With-Chiles-And-Nuts.html

Chaxiu

[liuzhou]

Here is an English version of the recipe given above by Imron. As said, you could try adding cucumber, although I've never seen it done.

[gougou]

Actually, I've been to two places in Beijing already, where upon ordering a 辣子鸡 I was giving something completely different from the kind on the picture provided by imron. It was much more similar to 宫爆鸡丁 in that it had no chili peppers and seemed like your average stir-fried dish. I don't recall what exactly it was anymore, but I remember green peppers.

It was pretty similar in both cases, so I guess that it's some kind of variant.

[liuzhou]

I've come across a few "Sichuan" dishes in Beijing which bore no resemblance to anything I'd seen in Sichuan.

The only 辣子鸡 I've seen there (or here in Guangxi) is exactly as Imron's picture.

My local does 外婆飘香骨，which I translate as “Maternal Grandmother’s Fluttering Fragrant Bones”. It is basically the same as 辣子鸡 but substitutes ribs for the chicken.

And jolly nice it is, too.

[teaforme]

I have a recipe in English for Diced Chicken with Peppercorn that is pretty similar to the dish you've described. I haven't tried the recipe; it's in a cookbook of mine. But after glancing over it and the proportions, it looks pretty spot-on (though of course, you'll have to adjust things according to your personal preference).

PM me if you want the recipe. I'd be happy to share.

[mucker69]

Their dumplings are very good. I've determined that Shanghai food is my favorite. Very yummy stuff. Though most regional cuisines have some great stuff.