Fried Calamari Sichuan Style

It’s the Chinese version of fried calamari, and—if you’re a lover of Sichuan flavors—it’s the best version of fried calamari. In Jiaoyan Youyu, 椒盐鱿鱼, or salt-and-pepper squid, the youyu is lightly battered and fried and then stir-fried with aromatics and a heavy sprinkling of jiaoyan, or pepper-salt.

Jaioyan can be as simple as Sichuan pepper and salt, roasted together and ground to a powder. However, many folks on the Chinese Internet add fennel seeds and sesame seeds to the mix, and some even add a bit of green Sichuan pepper, white pepper or black pepper. Others may add additional warm spices such as star anise. Once you come up with your preferred blend, Jiaoyan can be used as a kind of finishing salt or as a dip for roasted and fried things.

We love all the variations. But here we are taking liberties and expanding the definition of pepper to include not only Sichuan pepper but chili pepper, using gandie, or Sichuan dipping chilies, as our finishing dust on top of jiaoyan. They truly complement each other, since jiaoyan is numbing and salty and dipping chilies supply umami and heat. You can use either or both!

Can’t tell you how good this dish is. It’s similar to laziji, or Chongqing chicken, but, as my husband said, “Its better than chicken.” I’m sure those are fightin’ words to many, but in some ways it’s true—the fried squid is more crunchy, more tender and easier to make!

What Are Sichuan Dipping Chilies?

Dipping chilies is a Sichuan condiment that’s become very popular in the hotpot age in China. It is a blend of chilies and Sichuan pepper along with spices and usually nutty things like ground sesame, peanut and roasted soybeans. It is a spicy, nutty and tingly condiment with just the right amount of umami and heat. 

Dipping chiles are often served with Sichuan hotpot as a dry dip, an alternative and complement to a hotpot dipping sauce. It is especially popular for chuanchuanxiang, or the type of hotpot with the ingredients cooked on skewers. It’s also served as a dip for fried foods and I even had it once as the dip for little salty new potatoes roasted over fire at a rural Sichuan restaurant.

I like to say that a good gandie is one that tastes great licked straight off your fingers. We tasted many a Sichuan-made formulation for this dip as we were selecting one for The Mala Market, and not all are created equal. We held out until we found one that stands out! (Some of you may remember that we introduced a perfect version a few years ago, but then the maker inexplicably changed the formulation for the worse, and it took us a couple of years to find a worthy replacement.)

How to Make Jiaoyan

Simple Jiaoyan:

• Add 1/4 cup premium red Sichuan pepper, such as da hong pao or Tribute pepper, to a small, dry skillet. If you have cheap Sichuan pepper, you’ll need to pick out all the black seeds and twigs first. Better yet, don’t use cheap Sichuan pepper!
• Heat the huajiao over a low flame until it smells fragrant.
• Add 1 tablespoon salt and stir mixture constantly until the salt is lightly toasted. The peppercorns will turn from red to dark red, but do not brown or burn them. Remove mixture from pan and let it cool.
• Grind to a coarse powder in a mortar & pestle or to a fine powder in a spice grinder. Sift out the remaining husks if they bother you.

Complex Jiaoyan:

• Add 1/4 cup premium red Sichuan pepper, such as da hong pao or Tribute pepper, to a small, dry skillet with 1 tablespoon fennel seed. Heat the huajiao and fennel over a low flame until they smell fragrant.
• Add 1 tablespoon sesame seed and 1 1/2 tablespoons salt and stir constantly until both are lightly toasted. The peppercorns will turn from red to dark red, but do not brown or burn them. Remove mixture from pan and let it cool.
• Grind to a coarse powder in a mortar & pestle or to a fine powder in a spice grinder.

Preparing and Frying the Squid

You can use either fresh or frozen squid for salt-and-pepper squid. We’ve found that flash-frozen squid thawed when we are ready to make it (often on a weeknight!) is the way to go for us. (Whole Foods carries a good brand from Rhode Island.) Whether you include or don’t include the tentacles is up to you, but they add a super, contrasting texture to the proceedings. The Chinese way to prep the body is to open it up and score the insides in a crosshatch, then cut into squares, so that they roll up into interesting, ruffled shapes when cooked. I’ve found that the frozen squid are pretty small and thin, so the method doesn’t work as well. I generally just cut them into rounds à la calamari.

Salt-and-pepper squid is a Cantonese dish beloved far and wide. In Guangdong, the dish would most likely be stir-fried in little to no batter, just a dusting of flour or starch, and the jiao, or pepper, in jiaoyan would be white pepper. But we wanted a little bit more coating—not a thick, American-style breading, but a nice crunchy crunch. We decided to go with an egg white-flour-cornstarch batter. The trick is to get your hands in there and place the battered squid into the wok piece by piece, so it doesn’t stick together. Fry until deeply golden—don’t worry about overcooking the squid, because this will not do so. Deep-frying is easier, but I often shallow fry to use less oil.

Most of the batter will cling to the squid when you fry it, but some will form their own little delicious loose crispy bits. Be sure to include those in your final dish, piled on top with the crispy garlic, scallions and chilies, as they are one of the best parts. Dust generously with jiaoyan and/or dipping chilies so that your fried calamari yells Sichuan. You can take both condiments to the table too, in case you’re feeding some real mala-heads.

For other delicious fried foods with Sichuan flavors try my recipes for Chongqing Chicken With Chilies and a version of that dish made with lobster!