After I ate this hot dish called "ge le shan" chicken in a local restaurant for the first time at a group gathering, my family had to go back to the restaurant again and again to eat it. This dish is so hot, every time we eat it, our mouth are watering, lips are swollen, noses are running, ears are deafening. It's so addictive. If we were eating out, we were eating this hot dish in this restaurant until the idea of making it myself hit me.

My educated guesses are: the chicken (with skin and bone) used are wings chopped to smaller pieces; the meat is deep fried before adding to the stir frying. The only problem is deep frying isn't my first choice of cooking method for 2 reasons: First, I have a mental block for deep frying. It needs quite some amount of oil. I don't like to reuse the oil nor does it feel good to throw it away(seems wasteful to me). Second, it needs a deep fryer and some skill to get less oily food. Although the latter isn't a problem for me, I'm lazy, taking out the deep fryer and washing it, putting it away afterwards are a lot work for me. So I tried 3 ways to cook the meat in order to find the best way to cook the meat to get a homemade dish closest to the restaurant dish. The good news is I succeeded in finding the best way to cook the meat. The better news is it made me laugh myself. The best news we don't need to eat in the restaurant now as I can make it myself at home.

Okay, below are the ingredients, equipment, notes, and steps to make this hot dish.

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs chicken wings

1 1/2 tbsp ginger juice (*)

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper powder

Orange zest (from 1 orange)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp si chuan pepper corns

1 inch ginger root (slices)

2 garlic cloves (slices)

2 jalapeno pepper (slices, use seeds and everything)

2 green onions (chop diagonally)

A whole lot hot red whole chili peppers

Deep frying oil (I used peanut oil)

EQUIPMENT

NOTES

*Skull shape ginger juice: Because I have a juicer, I always buy ginger root more than I need in a few meals, then I juice it and freeze the juice in ice tray. (Mine tray has skull and cross bone shape, a prize from Instructables for Halloween Food Contest I won.). One skull is 1 1/2 tbsp juice.

Note: This article may contain affiliate links as references for the same or similar products used in this project. If you click on the links and make purchases I could receive a small percentage of commission from the advertising companywith no extra cost to you.

Step 1: Prepare the Meat

Chop each wing into 5 pieces. Remove extra loose skin and discard it (shown at the bottom right corner of the third image in this step). You may keep or discard tips of the wings. (I kept them).

Mix the meat with ginger juice, cayenne powder, orange zest, and salt (not included in picture). (Ginger juice and cayenne make it hot and orange zest is mainly for a nice golden color when the meat is cooked)

Place it in refrigerator overnight or for a few hours at least.

Step 2: Prepare Stir Fry Medium

Add oil to deep fryer to the minimal level, set temperature between 370F and 375F.

While the oil in deep fryer is warming up, start to prepare stir fry medium:

Heat 3 tbsp oil in stir fry wok (Don't heat it to too hot)

Add in the si chuan peppercorns (Don't burn it), cook for a few seconds

Add in the whole chili peppers (It is mainly as a garnish than as a hot spice here), stir fry a few minutes to hot

Step 3: Cook the Meat and Add to Stir Fry Medium

I have tried 3 ways to cook the meat.

First, I used the ancient way of boiling the meat, then drain it and let it completely air dry in hope of getting a dry crisp skin. The result is okay. The main dissatisfaction I had is the meat doesn't have a golden color on the skin when done.

Then I thought may be oven roasting can achieve a golden color. I'm only half right. The meat does have a nice color but the texture isn't good. The skin is soggy, the meat is dry after stir fry. It might be better just eat it when done roasting.

In the end, deep frying which I sought to avoid gave the best result: golden color, crispy skin, tender and juicy meat.

So when the deep fryer reaches the set temperature, place several pieces of meat in the basket and lower it to the oil, fry until meat has a nice golden color (about a few minutes).

Tips for nice golden and cooked just right, not oily chicken are: set a high start temperature, don't over crowd the basket, and wait for the temperature to reach to the set point between batches.

As each batch is done, add it to the stir frying medium.

Add ginger, garlic, jalapeno peppers in this order and stir fry until jalapeno is just softened and still hot.

Add green onions just before plating and mix, the tip is to still keep some of the green onion's pungent flavor. After all, it is for Some Like it Hot.

That's all in it. Enjoy! And please vote for the Some like It Hot Contest if you like this recipe. Thanks.