This Sha Cha Chicken recipe is another win for lazy cooks everywhere. Just 9 ingredients and 10 minutes are required to make this dish, but the results are no less impressive. In fact, you’ll be able to make a plate of sha cha chicken faster than your rice cooker can steam rice, so make sure to get your rice going before you start prepping!
(I’ve made that mistake before, and believe me, it is TORTURE waiting for your rice to cook when you’ve got a full wok of deliciousness waiting.)
What Is Sha Cha Sauce?
It took me a little while to warm up to sha cha sauce in general. Sometimes translated as “Chinese BBQ sauce,” sha cha sauce is made from seafood (brill fish and dried shrimp, generally), shallots, garlic, and chilies. It has a faint seafoody air about it that made my formerly seafood-averse self shy away from it (everyone makes mistakes).
But today, it’s one of my favorite things to cook with. This sha cha chicken has a savory, delicious flavor with just a hint of seafood that helps you achieve an intense umami character with very few ingredients and that humblest of proteins––chicken breast.
That said, if you’re not a chicken person, you can also check out our recipe for Sha Cha Beef Stir-fry.
Ok, let’s get on with the recipe!
Sha Cha Chicken: Recipe Instructions
Start by adding your sliced chicken breast, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, 2 teaspoons cornstarch and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to a medium bowl. Mix well. Heat your wok over high heat until smoking. Add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, and sear the chicken until it just turns opaque (it can still be slightly pink).
Remove the chicken from the wok and set aside.
Reduce the heat to medium, and add another couple tablespoons of oil to the wok. Add the ginger and cook for 1 minute.
Add the garlic, sha cha sauce, and sugar, and fry this mixture for 2 minutes.
Then add the chicken back to the wok along with the scallions and the remaining tablespoon of soy sauce. Increase the heat to high, and stir-fry for 1 minute, until the scallions are wilted.
Serve immediately with steamed rice!
Sha Cha Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast (thinly sliced; can also substitute boneless skinless chicken thighs)
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce (plus 1 tablespoon, divided)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- Vegetable oil
- 1-2 tablespoons minced ginger
- 3 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
- 2 tablespoons Sha Cha Sauce
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- 5 scallions (cut on an angle into 2-inch lengths)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, add the sliced chicken breast, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, 2 teaspoons cornstarch and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Mix well. Heat your wok over high heat until smoking. Add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, and sear the chicken until it just turns opaque (it can still be slightly pink). Remove the chicken from the wok and set aside.
- Reduce the heat to medium, and add another couple tablespoons of oil to the wok. Add the ginger and cook for 1 minute. Add the garlic, sha cha sauce, and sugar, and fry this mixture for 2 minutes.
- Then add the chicken back to the wok along with the scallions and the remaining tablespoon of soy sauce. Increase the heat to high, and stir-fry for 1 minute, until the scallions are wilted. Serve immediately with steamed rice!
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That makes us happy, Naomi! Thanks!
I love your blog and your recipes…the Sha Cha chicken sounds great..but my husband has an aversion to anything fish related….could I substitute char sui sauce for the sha cha nsauce?
Of course you can use Char Siu sauce on chicken but it is a completely different taste although Char Siu will also pair up nicely with scallions and rice of course. Normally, Char Siu is used for pork but why not? The Bull Head bbq sauce is delicious but it does has a very present smell and taste of dried/fermented shrimp (Did you ever smell a block of fermented Shrimp Paste? We call that Trassie over here), it has great Umami. Char Siu has a very different flavour profile.
Love your recipes but since I’m cooking for one, and in an ethnic food desert, it’s difficult to get ingredients. Sa Cha sauce on Amazon is $21- !
If I can’t use something fairly quickly, it goes to waste if not able to freeze. Sure wish there was some way to get smaller quantities for those of us who would like to experiment with new dishes but can’t justify expense.
Thank you
BTW, I don’t have a rice cooker and used to just cook rice in a pot but I bought a JosephJoseph microwave rice cooker and it works really well. Nice thing about it, your rice can be steamed in the microwave while you’re prepping/cooking your main dish. For people who don’t want/can’t store another appliance (like me), this is perfect. I also freeze any extra rice I have.
Hi Zanne, you can find Sha Cha sauce (Bullhead brand, which is what we use) and other Asian ingredients for more reasonable prices here: https://justasianfood.com/products/bullhead-sauce-barbecue-8-5oz. You can also check yamibuy.com.
I just made your version of Blue Koi’s Firebird Chicken this week and it was hugely successful, so I had to come check out this recipe- I love the flavor of Sa Cha sauce, thanks so much for introducing me to a new ingredient!
I have a question because I will probably be giving this a try really soon- I like a lot of sauce, and I may serve it over noodles. Do you have any suggestions as to how to increase the sauciness? Thank you for any advice!
Hi Valerie, this dish isn’t generally super saucy, but here’s what you can do. If you want to serve it over noodles, you can mix the noodles with a bit of sesame oil, soy sauce, and chili oil, like in our “After school special noodles” recipe, and then serve this chicken alongside it.
Or, right before adding the chicken back to the wok, you can add 1/2 cup of chicken stock. Bring it to a simmer, and and 2 1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons water. Simmer until the sauce is thickened, and then add the chicken, scallions and soy sauce.
Easy and good!
Totally agree!
Thank you, Arlene!
Just made this for dinner. It was sooo delicious! I have to admit, I got a little nervous when I added the sha cha sauce to the wok, as it definitely had a funky aroma! But I trusted that it would work, and I was not disappointed! Thank you for a yummy recipe!
Hi Laurie, just like fish sauce, you can’t just smell it. You have to just go for it. Glad you went for it on the sha cha sauce :-)