Chongqing Laziji: Twice-Fried Chicken Hidden in a Mound of Red Chilies (辣子鸡)

Laziji: Searching for Chicken Among the Red Chilies

The plate arrives as a hill of red. Whole dried chilies and Sichuan peppercorns are heaped so high that the chicken is hard to find at first, and the air smells of scorched chili and numbing pepper. Taylor Holliday, who writes about Sichuan food at The Mala Market, describes meeting the dish this way in a Chengdu restaurant in 2007: far more whole chilies than chicken, with diners picking out the little fried pieces rather than eating everything on the plate. A Chongqing culture article from iChongqing describes the same gesture at the table, with chopsticks searching for chicken among the red chilies.

This dish is laziji (辣子鸡, làzǐjī), also called Chongqing chicken with chilies. It is not a sweet-and-sour stir-fry and not a thick-battered fried chicken. Small cubes of chicken get a light coat of starch, chili and ground Sichuan pepper, are fried twice, and are then tossed in a little oil with garlic, ginger, chili flakes, sesame, whole chilies, whole peppercorns, sugar and scallions.

The recipe here is built on 450 g of chicken. No serving count or cooking times are fixed, and Sekai Gohan has not yet kitchen-tested this recipe, so watch the chicken and the oil rather than a clock.

Which version this is

The recipe follows a single formula: Holliday's "Chongqing Chicken With Chilies (Laziji, 辣子鸡)." The page was first published on April 10, 2015, and shows an update on April 7, 2026, so it is not claimed here that today's formula is identical to the first posting. Holliday presents it as her own home recipe, built from her memory of eating the dish in Chengdu. She notes that small bone-in chicken is what she describes as traditional, while her version uses boneless, skinless dark meat. It is one home cook's adaptation, not a standard Chongqing restaurant formula.

In 2017 she published a separate, different recipe based on a later meal in Chongqing itself, and she says plainly that it does not replace the 2015 version. That one uses chicken skin, larger cubes, caiziyou (rapeseed oil), zhacai (preserved mustard stem), fresh green chili and a single fry. None of those ingredients or steps are used here.

Two parts of the method below are editorial. Holliday writes the first fry temperature as "around 350°" with no unit. Because the second fry is given explicitly as 375°F in a US recipe, this article reads the first fry as 350°F (about 177°C). The core-temperature check for the chicken (the largest piece reaching 75°C at the center for at least 1 minute) and the advice to keep raw-chicken tools separate come from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. They are added food-safety steps, not part of Holliday's instructions.

Ingredients: 450 g Chicken, Chili Flakes and Sichuan Pepper in Two Roles

Measure the chili flakes into two separate bowls, one for the coating and one for the finishing oil, and keep ground Sichuan pepper apart from whole peppercorns.

This dish contains soy (soy sauce) and sesame. Check the ingredient and allergen labels on packaged seasonings such as soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and chili flakes.

Equipment

• Wok
• Separate cutting board and knife for raw chicken (or wash and sanitize them before reuse)
• Dry skillet, plus a spice grinder or mortar and pestle and a fine sieve, if grinding your own Sichuan pepper
• Deep-fry thermometer for the oil
• Food thermometer for the center of the chicken
• Slotted spoon or spider
• Paper towels and a plate
• Heatproof container for the frying oil

Choosing and Substituting: What to Find at a Chinese Grocer

Potato starch is the starch chosen here. In Japan, katakuriko is potato starch, so it fits directly. Cornstarch also works (see Variations), but use only one starch, not both.

Whole dried red Sichuan chilies are the visual center of the dish. Look for large, plump chilies of medium heat; searching "Sichuan dried chilies" or "denglongjiao" at a Chinese grocer or online shop is a good start. Small, ordinary dried chilies, such as Japanese takanotsume, can stand in for heat, but their aroma and size are different, so the finished dish will look and smell different.

Sichuan chili flakes should be the fragrant kind sold for Sichuan cooking (xiangla lajiao mian, 香辣辣椒面), not plain hot chili powder.

Sichuan peppercorns bring the numbing tingle. Buy whole red peppercorns and grind part of them for the coating yourself. Japanese sansho powder is not a full substitute: the numbing effect and aroma change. If you use it, start with a small amount rather than swapping it in measure for measure.

Shaoxing wine has no set substitute. Japanese sake can be used as a stand-in, but the aroma and finish change, and no fixed replacement amount is recommended.

Chinese light soy sauce is the soy to use. Don't swap it for Japanese usukuchi soy sauce just because both are called "light." Ordinary Japanese koikuchi soy sauce is a possible home stand-in, but it has not been compared in testing.

A deep-fry thermometer is worth having because the two fry stages run at different oil temperatures.

Method: Two Fries, Then a Wok of Aromatics

Keep raw chicken, its board and knife away from anything that will be eaten without further cooking, and wash your hands after handling raw chicken.

At the Table: Picking Out the Chicken

Laziji is served so that the chilies look abundant and the chicken looks small among them. Holliday writes that she generally picks out the chicken rather than eating all of the whole chilies and peppercorns; that is her own way of eating it, not a rule for every table, and some people do eat a few. The Chongqing culture article describes the same search with chopsticks. The coating is at its best freshly fried, so serve it as soon as it leaves the wok.

When Things Go Wrong

Variations

These changes stay within the recipe's own options. Temperatures, quantities and the overall order stay the same.

• Cornstarch coating: Use cornstarch instead of potato starch, in the same amount.
• Peanut oil: Fry in peanut oil instead of rapeseed oil. This adds a peanut allergen; check with everyone at the table.
• Red and green peppercorns: Replace the 2 tsp whole red Sichuan peppercorns with 1 tsp red and 1 tsp green.
• Hotter: Cut some of the whole dried chilies in half and leave the seeds in. Don't increase the chili flakes in the coating or finishing oil.
• Bigger chilies: Choose large, plump, medium-heat Sichuan chilies for a fuller-looking plate.

Leftovers and Allergens

Laziji is best eaten freshly fried, while the coating is crisp. If you have leftovers, don't leave them at room temperature for long. Use clean utensils to divide them into clean, shallow containers so they cool quickly, then refrigerate. Reheat thoroughly to 75°C or above. No storage time is given here, and reheating will not necessarily restore the original crisp texture.

The selected recipe contains soy (soy sauce) and sesame (sesame seeds). Check labels on packaged seasonings for allergens. If you choose peanut oil for frying, the dish also contains peanut.

Chongqing Jianghu Cooking and an Unsettled Origin Story

iChongqing, in an article by Yan Deng produced with the Chongqing Institute of Foreign Studies, presents laziji as part of Chongqing's Jianghu cuisine: local cooking rooted in folk food stalls and small restaurants. It describes the dish as deep-fried chicken cubes with red chilies and notes that preparations vary from place to place. That variation is one reason this article sticks to a single written recipe rather than calling any version the Chongqing standard.

The origin story is not settled. The iChongqing article reports a local account that links the dish's early popularity to the Linzhongle roadside restaurant and the popularity of Gele Mountain around 1990. Holliday's 2015 post says the dish is said to have been created in the 1920s and to have become widely popular in the 1990s. These accounts don't agree, and neither establishes an inventor or a founding restaurant. What they share is the plate itself: small fried chicken under a great many red chilies.

Laziji is treated here as a Chongqing dish, not folded into a general category of Sichuan Province cooking, even though it shares Sichuan pepper and dried chilies with that cuisine. For other dishes from across the country, see more recipes from China.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you eat the chilies?

Holliday writes that she generally picks out the chicken rather than eating all the whole chilies and peppercorns, and the iChongqing article describes diners finding chicken among the chilies with chopsticks. That doesn't mean nobody eats them; some people eat a few. Eat as many as you like.

Why fry twice?

The first fry, at a medium bubble, cooks the chicken through. The second fry, in hotter oil, makes the thin coating crisp and golden. Neither fry has a set time, and doneness should be checked with a thermometer: the largest piece should reach 75°C at the center for at least 1 minute, following Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. That check is added safety guidance, not part of Holliday's recipe.

Can I use katakuriko?

Yes. Japanese katakuriko is potato starch, which is the starch chosen here. Dust it on thinly rather than making a thick coating.

Is this the same as Holliday's 2017 Chongqing version?

No. The 2017 recipe is a separate formula based on a meal she ate in Chongqing, with chicken skin, larger cubes, caiziyou, zhacai, fresh green chili and a single fry. She says it does not replace the 2015 recipe. This article uses only the 2015 recipe.

How do I make it hotter?

Cut some of the whole dried chilies in half and leave the seeds in; this option is listed in the recipe. The base version here keeps the chilies whole. Don't raise the amount of chili flakes in the coating or the finishing oil.

Why "at least 3 US cups" of chilies, and why 350°F for the first fry?

Holliday writes the whole chilies as "at least 3 cups/3 ounces." There is no basis for treating those two as exact equivalents, so this article uses the first measure, at least 3 US cups, and doesn't convert the ounces to grams. The first fry is written as "around 350°" with no unit; since the second fry is given as 375°F, it is read here as 350°F (about 177°C). That reading is editorial.

How many people does it serve?

No serving count is given. The recipe uses 450 g (1 lb) of chicken, and the yield has not been fixed by testing.

Sources