This low carb dry-fried chicken recipe is one of my go-to meals. This is a versatile keto recipe that can you can make as spicy or not spicy as you like. This is a great low carb recipe to meal prep for your lunches or dinners for the week. It also goes great on its own, or with low carb cauliflower rice.
One of the best things about this low carb Sichuan recipe is that you can easily adjust it and really make it your own.
How to make low carb dry-fried chicken and leeks.
You can watch a quick 2-minute tutorial for this recipe from our YouTube channel The Keto Show below, or you can scroll down to find the ingredients and instructions written out.
Ingredients
1 lbs chicken (cut into bite size pieces)
280 grams (roughly or 2 stalks) of leeks
1/4 cup peanut oil (or choice of cooking oil)
6-8 dried chiles (about 4-6 grams)
4 grams whole Sichuan peppercorns
50 grams Sichuan chili bean paste
1 tablespoon Shaoxing cooking wine (or any rice cooking wine or medium-dry sherry)
1 teaspoon soy sauce
A Few Tips
Leek substitute: most of the carbs in this dish come from the leeks. You can use a variety of vegetables in place of the leeks, but a common substitute is green bell peppers chopped into chunks. This will cut the carb count per serving by almost half. Personally, I'll take the extra five carbs, because I love leeks, however, if you're trying to keep your counts as low as possible, then swap for peppers. Green onions/scallions would also make good substitute.
Dried chiles: something to note about the chiles, technically about half the weight of the chiles are carbs. However, you do not eat these chiles. They are mostly for spice and flavor. I include their carb count in my totals, but take that for what you will.
On the right dried chiles, and on the left Sichuan peppercorns.
Sichuan peppercorns: the recipe calls for whole peppercorns, but Josh and I prefer to grind them and mix them in as a powder to get the full effect of the spice. At least for us, we're less likely to eat the spice in its hard round form.
Fermented black beans: a popular addition to Sichuan recipes is fermented black beans. If you are doing lazy keto, or in maintenance mode, or just living a less strict low carb lifestyle and want a little extra flavor. You can consider adding one tablespoon of fermented black beans. Keep in mind; this will increase your carb count by roughly three carbs per serving.
Instructions
Cut leeks lengthwise and rinse them under running water to remove sand/dirt cut into pieces about half an inch wide.
Add your 1/4 cup of oil to your wok or stir-fry pan and heat until smoking hot.
Add the bite-size pieces of chicken and stir-fry over high heat for 10-15 minutes. Theoretically, if you had a proper wok burner, this would only take 4-6 minutes, depending on the size of the wok and pieces of chicken. The goal is to remove as much of the water content as possible. This could also be done by deep frying the chicken, but would significantly increase the amount of oil you would need.
Turn the heat down to medium and mix in the chiles and Sichuan peppercorns. Be careful not to scorch the spices. If you're not careful, you'll start breathing in spicy air. As cool as that sounds cool, it kind of sucks.
Add the chili bean paste and stir.
Next, stir in the soy sauce and rice wine. You can also add a little salt here if you like things on the saltier side.
Stir over medium heat for another 5 minutes to evaporate the liquids you just added. This will allow the chicken to crisp up a little more.
Now it's time to add the leeks (or peppers) and stir-fry for another minute or two until they are tender.
Remove from heat, and serve!
Nutritional Information Per Serving
The above recipe makes 4 servings. **Note** I got these numbers after putting all the ingredients we used into MyFitnessPal. Be sure to add this recipe to what you use to track your macros with the brand of ingredients you use for the most accurate count.
Calories: 261.5
Fat: 16.3 grams
Net Carbs: 10.2 grams
Carbs: 12.3 grams
Fiber: 2.1 grams
Protein: 16.5 grams
We hope you enjoy this recipe! If you make it, we'd love to see it. Tag us on Instagram using @KaitandKeto!