Szechuan Skillet Chicken

The birch trees are turning. September gold — the particular amber that Alaska's birch trees produce when the chlorophyll retreats and the carotenoids take over, the chemistry of autumn visible in every tree, the whole city turning color in a single week. I drove to Lourdes's house through neighborhoods on fire with yellow and gold, the trees lining the streets like torches, Alaska performing its autumn beauty with the same excess it brings to summer light and winter dark — everything maximal, everything dramatic, nothing ever moderate.

Lourdes and I cooked together on Saturday. The routine restored — mostly. The masks are off between us now (both vaccinated — wait, not yet, vaccine isn't out yet). We're still careful, but the care has relaxed into habit rather than terror. We made pancit bihon — the rice noodle version, the everyday pancit, the one that takes thirty minutes and feeds ten people and has been the Santos weeknight dinner since before I was born.

The blog hit a milestone: five years of writing. Five years since I started writing about Filipino food in Alaska during my recovery, five years since the first post about adobo — the post that was barely coherent, written by a woman still shaking from the breakdown, the words stumbling out of a mind that was still learning to function. The writing has evolved. The first posts were raw, unpolished, the literary equivalent of a patient's first steps after surgery. Now the writing has rhythm, confidence, the voice of a woman who has found her subject and her audience and her reason for sitting at a keyboard after a twelve-hour shift instead of collapsing into sleep.

I celebrated the blog anniversary by making every recipe from my first month of writing: chicken adobo, salmon sinigang, caldereta, lechon kawali. The apartment smelled like 2016 — like the beginning, like the floor, like the first time the garlic hit the oil and the smell was enough to keep me standing. Five years of garlic. Five years of vinegar. Five years of standing.

After a weekend of cooking every recipe from my first month of writing — the adobo, the sinigang, the caldereta, the lechon kawali — I wanted one more dish to close out the anniversary, something that honored the same principles that have carried this blog for five years: garlic, heat, and nothing held back. This Szechuan skillet chicken isn’t Filipino, but it speaks the same language — bold aromatics, a sauce that demands your attention, the kind of smell that hits the moment the pan gets hot and reminds you exactly why you started cooking in the first place. Five years of standing. This is what we make to mark it.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce (such as sambal oelek)
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons neutral oil (such as avocado or vegetable), divided
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1/2 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns, lightly crushed
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 cup snap peas
3 green onions, sliced, white and green parts separated
Steamed white rice, for serving
Sesame seeds, for garnish

Instructions

Make the sauce. Whisk together soy sauce, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, chili garlic sauce, sesame oil, and cornstarch in a small bowl until smooth. Set aside.
Sear the chicken. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat until shimmering. Add chicken in a single layer and cook undisturbed for 3–4 minutes until golden on the bottom. Stir and cook another 2–3 minutes until cooked through. Transfer to a plate.
Build the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium-high and add remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Add garlic, ginger, Szechuan peppercorns, and white parts of green onions. Cook, stirring constantly, for 60 seconds until deeply fragrant — this is the moment the kitchen turns.
Cook the vegetables. Add red bell pepper and snap peas. Stir-fry for 2–3 minutes until just tender-crisp, keeping the heat high so the vegetables char lightly at the edges.
Finish the dish. Return chicken to the skillet. Pour the sauce over everything and toss to coat. Cook 1–2 minutes, stirring, until sauce thickens and clings to the chicken and vegetables.
Serve. Spoon over steamed rice. Top with green onion greens and a scatter of sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Szechuan Skillet Chicken — Five Years of Standing, Five Years of Garlic