Roast Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorns (perfect for Chinese New Year!)

What’s better than a homemade roast chicken? A homemade Roast Chicken with sichuan peppercorns! This roast chicken is funky, it’s super delicious and it’s what I call the grown up version of your Sunday Roast!

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Roast Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorns
Roast Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorns

Roast Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorns

I love Sichuan cuisine, and I love sichuan peppercorns! Sichuan peppercorns’ claim to fame is their mouth numbing characteristic; you get a tingling (and therefore, slightly numbing) sensation on your tongue which sets the stage for the typically spicy dishes found in Sichuan cuisine. Click here to read more about these peppercorns that are not peppercorns at all!

So today’s recipe, Roast Chicken with Sichuan Pepper, is not really a chilli spicy recipe, unless you want it to be! We use a whole lot of these peppercorns, along with a few other ingredients to create a marinade that will add incredible depth to the meat, with citrusy, sweet and smoky tones. And a touch of spice.

Roast Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorns
Fabulous with noodles!

To ensure that the meat gets a friendly dose of the marinade, you must get under the skin, as far as you can go. The best way to reduce the risk of the skin tearing (which we don’t really want), is to do it from the neck end of the chicken with your fingers, and to go gently, especially if you have nails!

Wearing gloves will “blunt” your long, sharp nails slightly and also keep the marinade off your hands, which is not a bad thing! I hate tingly fingers!

Roast Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorns
That crispy skins is just awesome!

How long to Roast the Chicken For?

A good estimate is about 20 minutes every 450 g (1 lb), plus another 15 minutes or so. It’s not an exact science. So, if you have a chicken that weighs 1.5 kg (just over 3 lb), that’s 1 hour plus 15 minutes (or so).

Check at the hour mark, then decide how long more to give your chicken, whether you use a thermometer or go by appearance, as I do. I also like to cover the chicken for the first half hour to stop it from over browning.

Roast Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorns
Our Sichuan Roast Chicken is just as at home with roast potatoes

How to Serve our Roast Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorns?

  • Needless to say, this would work being served as you would your usual roast, with potatoes, gravy, et al.
  • However, I love to have this as part of an East Asian meal. As you can see in the picture, it’s fantastic with noodles, but will also go famously with some rice and other side dishes.
  • It would also be wonderful wrapped up in pancakes with hoi sin sauce, spring onions (scallions) and cucumbers, just like the crispy duck you get at Chinese restaurants.

And, with Chinese New Year around the corner, this would be perfect as part of your Chinese New Year meal! For more ideas, check out the Chinese page, Thai page, Vietnamese page as well as the Singapore & Malaysia page for creating a complete menu with recipes like:

Thai Green Papaya Salad Recipe (ส้มตำ), Som Tam
Recipe for Thai green papaya salad or som tam. Refreshing and invigorating, it shakes your very being with its intensely powerful combination of hot, sour, salty, savoury and sweet flavours, epitomising Thai cuisine and indeed the foods of some of its immediate neighbours
Get the Recipe!
Vegan Mapo Tofu
Vegan Mapo Tofu is a delicious Sichuan dish of soft, silken tofu and shiitake in a gloriously rich, spicy and slightly tingly sauce.
Get the Recipe!
Vegan Mapo Tofu on white rice, in a bowl
Singapore Noodles (Singapore Mei Fun) a Popular Takeout Recipe
Homemade Singapore Noodles or Singapore Mei Fun recipe. A quick dish of stir fried rice vermicelli noodles with a distinctive curry flavour, made in just 20 minutes!
Get the Recipe!
Singapore Noodles, Mei Fun

If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!

And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood

Lin xx

Roast Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorns

Roast Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorns

Roast Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorns is roast chicken for grown ups! Super easy, the sichuan peppercorns will add a zingy dimension to your Sunday roast!
5 from 29 votes
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Course: Main Dish or part of a Chinese menu
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: chicken, chinese, roast
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 317kcal
Author: Azlin Bloor

Ingredients

  • 1 large chicken between 1.5 kg – 2 kg (roughly 3 – 4 lb)
  • 2 stalks spring onions scallions
  • 1 whole orange halved

Marinade

  • 2 Tbsp sichuan peppercorns
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 5 cm (2") ginger
  • ½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
  • ¼ tsp chilli flakes
  • 1 Tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp honey
  • 1 Tbsp Shaoxing rice wine or any rice wine or dry sherry
  • 1 tsp sesame oil

Instructions

  • Dry roast the sichuan peppercorns on medium low heat for 1 – 2 minutes, no more, as we want just a bit of depth.
  • Place the sichuan peppercorns in a pestle and mortar, along with the salt and pound to a semi-coarse grind. Or just use a spice mill/chopper.
  • Pound or chop the garlic and ginger into a fairly fine mince. A food chopper will do, or use the pestle and mortar or just a knife to chop them fine.
  • Now mix all the marinade ingredients together, right there in the mortar or in a bowl.
  • Rub the marinade all over the chicken, inside and out, and under the skin, being careful not to break the skin, going as far as you can.
  • Leave to marinate for a minimum of 1 hour, overnight if you planned early enough! If marinating overnight, place in the fridge.
  • 20 minutes before you’re ready to roast the chicken, bring it out of the fridge to allow it to come to room temperature slightly.
  • Preheat the oven to 190˚C (375˚F).
  • Stuff the chicken with the spring onions (scallions) and orange.
  • Loosely cover the chicken with a foil and roast on the middle shelf for 1 hour.
  • Take the foil off after 1 hour and roast uncovered for the remainder of the time, which should be about 3o minutes, depending on the size of your chicken. See tips above. Baste your chicken halfway, if you like. I don’t always bother, going for a super crispy skin.
  • When done, cover with foil, then a tea towel and leave to rest for 20 minutes, before carving and serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 317kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 95mg | Sodium: 647mg | Potassium: 341mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 310IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 42mg | Iron: 2mg
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29 thoughts on “Roast Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorns (perfect for Chinese New Year!)”

  1. I’ve just come across this recipe as I have a good supply of Sichuan peppercorns! I spatchcocked the chicken so could get the rub under the skin more easily (added the backbone to my freezer stash for making stock) so no spring onions or orange in my version and cooked it in 45 mins. Fabulous taste! I served it with Black pepper seasoned potato wedges and some grilled flat mushrooms marinated in soy and garlic

  2. Aaron Feinstein

    I love Sichuan too, Lin. Your recipe is making me hungry, I’ll be cooking this dish on the weekend.

  3. Elizabeth O.

    This sounds like it’s packed with lovely flavors! I think it’s awesome to be able to cook something like this for the Chinese New Year!

  4. I always love chicken in any form and my goodness this looks absolutely delicious. Roasted chicken are the yummy ones and I would love to try this one during a weekend.

  5. We eat so much chicken, I am always looking for new ways to reinvent this old favorite. The flavor profile in this recipe looks amazing. I am wondering if it may be a bit too much for my seven-year-old’s pallet but overall… YUM!

  6. Victoria Heckstall

    What a fantastic recipe! I should try to make it this weekend! My family will surely love it.

  7. You always come to the rescue! I needed something new for some bone in chicken breasts in my refrig! I’m going to use your recipe…fingers crossed most all the ingredients are in my pantry b/c it’s snowing to beat the band!! Thanks for your creative talents, luv! xoxo

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