A Quick-Mix, Good-With-Everything Sichuan Sauce

After we launched a famous brand of handmade, 3-year-aged, Pixian chili bean paste into the U.S. market in August [2018], many, many of you reported back that you love its spicy and soulful flavor. But after making the best mapo doufu you’ve ever made, and perhaps a stellar twice-cooked pork, some of you are stumped for further ways to use it. So I’m embarking on a series called Cooking With Pixian Doubanjiang that will hopefully make it easier to utilize this super versatile burst of umami.

First up, naturally, is a Super Sichuan Sauce for Stir-fry, which I’ve kept to as few ingredients as possible so it makes quick work of a stir-fry with maximum flavor. In Sichuan, doubanjiang is used mainly for braises, but I’ve found that a small dollop of it really revs up a stir-fry and even makes an incredible grilling marinade. Later in the series, I’ll offer a Super Sichuan Sauce for grilling, one for braising and one for dry pot. All of them are based on our Yi Feng He Hao aged Pixian doubanjiang, the top-of-the-line version of a sauce that has been declared Intangible Cultural Heritage in China.

I’d like to convince you that Pixian doubanjiang is the next gochujang, Korea’s version of fermented chili paste, which has now been adopted by all kinds of cooks for use in all kinds of dishes. Doubanjiang is similarly versatile. Both are chili-based ferments, but while gochujang leans sweet, doubanjiang leans salty, and has the added funk of fermented fava beans. The trick in using it is concocting the right balance of flavors to complement and enhance it.

The stir-fry sauce I came up with is mala, of course, but you can easily adjust the intensity to your preference. It’s la, or spicy hot, from the douban and Sichuan chili flakes, and a bit ma, or tingly numbing, from freshly ground Sichuan pepper. It also has a bit of sweetness from dark soy sauce and a bit of nuttiness from roasted sesame oil. It works equally well with chicken, lean pork (pork loin) or lean beef (such as top sirloin or flank steak). Designed as a Sichuan-style (vs. American-Chinese) sauce, it does not provide a lot of extra sauce, but you can add broth or water to make some if you like.

Here’s the blueprint, which can be applied to any number of combinations of protein and vegetable weighing a total of 1 1/4 pounds. Pre-mixing the sauce enables a small mise en place and a quick wok process. The photo at top is of steak, onion and red bell pepper and this one in the instructions is simply chicken and green hot pepper.

First, mix up the sauce, including aged Pixian doubanjiang, Sichuan mala spices and a few other common pantry ingredients. Freshly ground Sichuan pepper is preferred, and the easiest, quickest way to get it is by grinding in a mortar and pestle. If your Sichuan pepper powder is not freshly ground, use more.

Then stir-fry small cubes of chicken or thin slices of lean beef or pork until done and remove from wok. Small and/or thin pieces are important for a quick stir-fry, more surface sauce, and an optimal mix of ingredients in your mouth.

When lightly seared and just cooked through, remove chicken and clean wok. Add more oil and your vegetable, such as Chinese long hot peppers or Anaheim (both of which are mildly hot) or bell peppers, along with some slices of garlic. When peppers are lightly browned but still crispish, push them to the sides of the wok, add the stir-fry sauce to the center, and cook it briefly.

Add back the chicken, stir-fry and mix well.

Done!

This is about as easy as it gets for a meat stir-fry, but if you want to make it even quicker, you could mix up this Super Sichuan Sauce for Stir-Fry in batches and keep it in your fridge for use anytime the stir-fry urge hits.