Directions

1. Was 1.3 lb of fresh red chilies. Make sure you use a type that fits your spicy level. Get rid of the moisture from the chili surface by using a salad spinner or air-drying them.

2. In a food processor, use the on and off mode. Blend the ginger, garlic and the chilies into a rough diced texture.
3. To the chili blend, add 5-6 tbsp of salt, 3 tbsp of sugar, 1.5 tbsp of high alcohol content liquor. Any brand and type that the alcohol content is above 30% will work. It acts like bacteria inhibitor. If you can’t take alcohol for some reasons, you can use the same amount of lemon juice.
4. Mix until you can see the bottom of the bowl starts appearing some liquid, you can cover it with a plastic film and let it sit at room temperature overnight.
5. Rinse the jars with a little bit of liquor. If you can’t use alcohol, you can boil the containers and bake them in a 150-degree Fahrenheit oven for 5-8 minutes or until the containers are completely dry. We will also need a spoon, so, rinse the spoon as well.
6. Store the chili sauce in the glass jars. Don’t fill it all the way full. Leave 1/8 of the space. Or else, the chili sauce will overflow during the fermenting process. An optional step. You can wet a piece of paper towel with some liquor and use that to clean up the edge of the jar. Seal the jar completely.
7. The first week, you should keep it at room temperature to encourage the fermentation. After that, you can keep it in the fridge. It should stay good for more than half-year.
8. A week later, you have your chopped chili sauce made. You can use it to make Duo jiao Ji ding. Quick, easy and delicious.
9. Roughly dice 2 pieces of chicken breast. Season it with 1.5 tbsp of soy sauce, 1.5 tbsp of Chinese fermented bean curd (Fu ru 腐乳), 1/2 tbsp of the oil from the bean curd jar, 1 tsp of sugar, 1/4 tsp of baking soda and some salt to taste. Mix until well combined. Cover it and let it sit for 20 minutes.
10. If you like dark meat, you can use boneless chicken thigh. Of crouse, you can also do ground beef or pork. If you are vegetarian, eggplant and tofu are great choices.
11. Besides the protein, I also like to use some celery - 2 stalks. Stack them together. Cut it into these triangle pieces. Celery provides some freshness and crunchiness to the dish. Very nice.
12. Heat your wok to smoking hot. Add some oil. Give it a toss so the oil can create a non-stick surface on the bottom. Wait until you see it starts smoking again, add the chicken. Separate it so most pieces touch the bottom. Do not stir and flip the meat immediately or else it will stick to the wok immediately. When cooking with a carbon steel wok, you have to wait and let one side of the chicken to sear. Flip the chicken and cook the other side.
13. When the chicken is fully cooked, push it to the side. If you have some grease at the bottom, you don’t need to add more oil. Mine looks a bit dry so I drizzled a couple of tsp in there. Because you do need some oil to activate the flavor of the chopped chili sauce. After 1 minute of stirring, you can add the celery. Celery takes a bit of time to cook. So I will use the chicken to cover it. And turn the heat to medium-low. Let it cook for a minute or 2.
14. Pour in 1/2 cup of cornstarch water from the side of the wok. Turn the heat back to medium-high. Keep mixing this until the sauce thickens a little bit. Taste to adjust the flavor. Mine is good. Take them out and you are ready to serve. Enjoy!