A Chinese sandpot and a cleaver are preferred but not required. Otherwise, you’ll need a 2-4 quart lidded pot that can be used stovetop. Don’t use cast iron, as it will react with the ingredients. Sandpots must be heated and cooled slowly; allow hot pot to cool before washing. Place hot pot on wooden board; never place on cold surface.

Trim the wingtips from wings, saving them for stock.

Using a sharp, thin-bladed Chinese cleaver or heavy chef’s knife, cut the chicken wings into two or three pieces, according to preference–or leave whole, if you prefer.

Slice the ginger as thinly as possible, aiming for about 1/2 cup.

If you haven’t peeled the garlic, do so now, leaving the cloves whole.

Heat the peanut or canola oil in a 2-4 quart lidded pot. I used a 2 1/2 quart sandpot.

Once the oil is shimmering, add the ginger and fry, stirring often. Cook until golden and browned at the edges. The smell will be maddening. Using a slotted spoon, remove ginger to a plate and set aside.

Add chicken to the now maddening ginger-scented oil and brown, stirring constantly. Depending on the size of your pot, chicken may be stacked. That’s okay.

When all chicken pieces are nicely browned, add the soy sauce, rock or regular sugar, rice wine, sesame oil, reserved ginger slices, and the white portions of scallions.

Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low simmer. Cover the pot and cook for about 45 minutes, or until chicken has become tender and sauce has begun reducing. Add the garlic cloves, cover pot again, and continue cooking until chicken is cooked through–another 15 to 30 minutes. Total cooking time will run 60-90 minutes, depending on your pot and stove.

At this stage, the original recipe calls for reducing the sauce until only oil remains. When I made this, the chicken finished cooking long before the sauce reduced. Finding the sauce too delicious to boil off, I opted to stop here.

If you prefer to reduce the sauce, check chicken for doneness: it is cooked through when completely tender, with no trace of pink remaining. If so, remove wings to a platter, keeping warm in a low oven while finishing sauce. If not, keep chicken in the pot. Turn up the heat, allowing sauce to reduce until only oil remains.

To serve: add the optional basil leaves, minced hot pepper, and the green scallion.

We ate this with lots of white rice and dry-fried bitter melon.

Three-Cup Chicken keeps, refrigerated, 2-3 days, but is at its best consumed immediately.

Notes:

Exercise caution when handling raw poultry. Wash your hands, utensils, and cutting boards with warm soapy water. Use clean, fresh dishtowels rather than the same wet one. While wooden cutting boards are aesthetically pleasing, they are difficult to keep clean. Mine kept getting deep knife cuts, and bacteria collected in those cuts. No amount of mineral oil helped. I switched to FDA-grade plastic cutting boards, which are much easier to care for. Rest boards on a damp dishcloth to stabilize them. If you are still concerned about poultry bacteria, run half a lemon over board after washing with warm soapy water. Do the same with your hands.