Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji) Recipe (2024)

  • East Asian
  • Dairy-free Mains
  • Chicken Drumsticks
  • Chicken Thighs
  • Chicken Wings

By

Cathy Erway

Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji) Recipe (1)

Cathy Erway

Cathy Erway is an award-winning food writer, author, blogger, and podcast host based in Brooklyn. She contributes to The Huffington Post, The New York Times, TASTE Cooking, Eater, Saveur, Serious Eats, and Food & Wine, among other publications.

Learn about Serious Eats'Editorial Process

Updated March 24, 2022

Trending Videos

Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji) Recipe (2)

Why It Works

  • The bold and flavorful cooking liquid is incredibly easy, made from equal parts soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine.
  • By cooking the garlic and ginger in the oil first, then adding the chicken and cooking liquid, the entire dish can be made quickly in just one skillet or wok.
  • Two options for cutting up the chicken allow you to choose between a more traditional version (with the chicken cut into 3-inch, bone-in pieces), or a more home-cook-friendly version (with the drumsticks left whole and the thighs cut in half along—but not through—the bone).

You won't see a lot of strict rules in Taiwanese recipes. But this dish, one of the island's most famous, is an exception. It calls upon equal parts soy sauce, rice wine, and sesame oil to create a viscous, dark sauce for braising chopped pieces of bone-in chicken. These are the "three cups" in question, and from the dish's name alone, a skeletal recipe emerges.

Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji) Recipe (3)

What its name doesn't give away, however, is that Three Cup Chicken also gets its intense flavor from heaps of whole garlic cloves and big rounds of ginger, fried in the sesame oil until golden-brown. When your chicken's added, they continue to cook until soft and sweet, mingling with sugar that's been added to the braising liquids. Toward the end of cooking, the whole dish is showered liberally with fresh basil leaves—the telltale sign that it's Taiwanese, although the dish has roots in Southern China. When it's ready to serve, the reddish-stained chicken is crowded with the soft, tender garlic cloves and lightly candied ginger, coated with a slightly reduced sauce, and peppered with herbs. It really is an exercise in over-abundance, and the result proves just what a good thing that can be.

The dish, known asSan Bei Jiin Taiwan, has become a standard menu item at Taiwanese restaurants, and its flavor profile has inspired all sorts of variations, the most common one being three cup-style braised squid or cuttlefish. But chicken is the classic rendition, and to make it the authentic way, it would traditionally be cooked in an old-fashioned clay pot. Luckily, it's pretty easy to pull off in any saucepan or wok at home.

Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji) Recipe (4)

In Taiwan, San Bei Ji would normally be made with chicken that's been chopped into bite-sized, bone-in pieces. A drumstick, for instance, would be divvied into two or three pieces crosswise, straight through the bone. Other parts would be pared down to a similar size. You can ask a butcher to cut the chicken like that for you, or even take a cleaver to it yourself if you're feeling adventurous, but at home I opt for an easier path by cutting chicken pieces to about the same size without cutting through the bone. For example, when I made this with chicken thighs and drumsticks, I cut the thighs in half by slicing alongside—but not through—the bone and left the drumsticks as-is, so that all the pieces were about the same size. This will ensure that everything cooks evenly.

Served with rice to absorb all its sauce, Three Cup Chicken is a pungent, lipsmacking main course. Pair it with a simple sautéed vegetable side for a hearty and satisfying meal.

April 23, 2014

Recipe Details

Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji) Recipe

Cook25 mins

Active25 mins

Total25 mins

Serves4to 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup Asian sesame oil

  • One (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced into rounds

  • 12-15 medium garlic cloves, peeled

  • 1-2 fresh Thai red chiles, stemmed and halved

  • 2 pounds skin-on chicken drumsticks, thighs, and/or wings, either chopped into 3-inch, bone-in pieces, or thighs halved along along the bone, wings split at the joint, and drumsticks left whole

  • 1/2 cup rice wine

  • 1/4 cup soy sauce

  • 1 tablespoon sugar

  • 2 cups fresh Thai basil leaves (from 1 large bunch)

  • Steamed white rice, for serving

Directions

  1. Heat sesame oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add ginger, garlic, and chiles and cook until very fragrant, about 1 minute.

    Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji) Recipe (5)

  2. Add chicken pieces to the skillet in a single layer and cook, tilting the pan if necessary to submerge all pieces in the oil, for 1 minute. Flip chicken pieces and cook for 1 minute longer.

    Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji) Recipe (6)

  3. Add rice wine, soy sauce, and sugar and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce heat to a simmer. Partially cover the skillet to prevent splashes of oil and cook, turning the chicken pieces every few minutes, until the chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Stir in Thai basil and remove from heat. Serve immediately with rice.

    Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji) Recipe (7)

Notes

If buying chicken from a butcher, ask for pieces to be chopped to 3-inch pieces with the bones in and skin on.

Special Equipment

Large wok or deep skillet

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
445Calories
23g Fat
14g Carbs
39g Protein

×

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4to 6
Amount per serving
Calories445
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 23g29%
Saturated Fat 5g25%
Cholesterol 192mg64%
Sodium 735mg32%
Total Carbohydrate 14g5%
Dietary Fiber 1g2%
Total Sugars 2g
Protein 39g
Vitamin C 4mg21%
Calcium 51mg4%
Iron 2mg13%
Potassium 517mg11%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji) Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is it called three cup chicken? ›

Why is it called three cup chicken? That's because three of the main ingredients were 1-cup in measurement. Traditionally, there was one cup of soy sauce, one cup of Shaoxing wine, and 1 cup of oil all used to braise the three cup chicken.

What is Han Dynasty three cup chicken? ›

A Taiwanese dish, three cup chicken consists of bite-sized chicken (bone-in) braised with equal parts soy sauce, white rice wine, and sesame oil. The combination, plus some sugar and a potent amount of garlic and ginger, eliminates the need for any spices.

What is the meaning of San Bei? ›

San bei ji—literally “three-cup chicken,” for the plentiful sesame oil, soy sauce and rice wine it contains—is one of Taiwan's most beloved dishes for a good reason.

How much chicken is 3 cups of cooked chicken? ›

Generally, 3/4 pound of boneless skinless chicken breasts will yield 2 cups of cubed cooked chicken. A 3-1/2-pound whole chicken will yield about 3 cups of diced cooked chicken.

Where does San Bei Ji come from? ›

The dish originates from the Jiangxi province of southern China, and is a specialty of Ningdu where the population are Hakka. The dish has become especially popular in Taiwan, being introduced to the island by the Hakka people. It is also served as a postpartum confinement food by the Chinese community of Malaysia.

Why is the chicken in Chinese food so white? ›

If that's the question, it's from a technique called velveting. They coat the chicken in a mixture of corn starch, egg white and seasonings. Is the meat in a Chinese restaurant really beef and chicken?

Why is chicken orange in China? ›

The original “Orange Chicken” had no breading around each piece of chicken and the sauce was made of leftover orange or lemon peels cooked with soy sauce, chilis and garlic. The sauce had a citrus element, but it wasn't as pronounced or sweet like you would think of today.

What is 3 cups of shredded chicken? ›

Shredded Chicken by Cups Yield Chart
Chicken breastsAmount Shredded
8oz breast (approx 1)1 ⅓ cup
12oz breast (approx 2)2 cups
16oz breast (approx 2-3)3 cups
24oz breast (approx 3-4)4 cups
1 more row
Mar 13, 2023

What is 1 cup of chicken? ›

Avoid buying too little or too much with these helpful tips. One cup cubed or shredded chicken: 1 cup of cubed or shredded chicken is about 5 ¼ ounces of cooked, deboned chicken.

Is 3 oz of chicken 1 cup? ›

A 3-ounce serving of cooked chicken is about 85 grams or just over half a cup of chicken.

What is 4 cups of chicken? ›

The weight of 4 cups of cooked chicken will depend on a variety of factors, such as the type of chicken, whether it is bone-in or boneless, and how it is cooked. As a rough estimate, 4 cups of shredded cooked chicken typically weighs around 1 pound or 16 ounces.

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Prof. An Powlowski

Last Updated:

Views: 6176

Rating: 4.3 / 5 (44 voted)

Reviews: 83% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Prof. An Powlowski

Birthday: 1992-09-29

Address: Apt. 994 8891 Orval Hill, Brittnyburgh, AZ 41023-0398

Phone: +26417467956738

Job: District Marketing Strategist

Hobby: Embroidery, Bodybuilding, Motor sports, Amateur radio, Wood carving, Whittling, Air sports

Introduction: My name is Prof. An Powlowski, I am a charming, helpful, attractive, good, graceful, thoughtful, vast person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.