Taiwanese-Style Three Cup Chicken

The soy sauce amount for this recipe was reduced by the Allrecipes staff on 7/29/2009 at the submitter's request.

I make this dish all the time and I never get tired of it. I was about to share it myself but you beat me to it :D (traditionally... rice wine is used instead of sherry, but it's not that big of a difference)

Recently I ate some chicken with basil at a local Taiwanese restaurant and wanted to recreate it at home. I found this recipe and tried it. The result was definitely was very close to what I ate and easy to boot. I've made the recipe twice, once with sherry and the other time without it (substituting chinese cooking wine instead) and have found it to be more or less the same. The sherry just makes it a little bit more sweet. Also, since I couldn't get my hands on Thai basil leaves or whole red chilies, I used regular basil and 2 jalapeno peppers instead. Finally, I cut down on the soy sauce a bit, wary of other reviewers who said the dish was too salty. All in all, I enthusiastically recommend this recipe.

This is a pretty good recipe. Like others, I've made a few modifications of my own: 1) reduced the amount of soy sauce to just 1/4 cup, 2) substituted the dry sherry with Chinese cooking wine, 3) reduced amount of sesame oil to just 3 tablespoons, and 4) added a full cup of basil leaves.

I tried this chicken in Taiwanese restaurant before, therefore I decided to DIY it at home. By using this recipe the cooking result is better than what we get locally. I put in 50g of Thai basir leaf, it really give the dish a slight peppery kick. Home grown basil leaf is always taste the best and it can be grown effortlessly by sticking stem into soil. Lisa

It's pretty good if you don't have an Asian market nearby, but I recently found another recipe I like better, which uses grated ginger, shaoxing wine instead of sherry, a small amount of dark sesame oil (for flavor) in addition to the light, and a darker, thicker soy sauce called kecap manis.

I had actually had this dish at a Tiwanese restaurant in Milian, Italy and loved it. When making it at home I mixed some five spice powder with some flour and dredged the chicken in it before adding it to the skillet to make it a bit crisper on the outside. I also used a lot of sliced ginger.

I really wanted to love this. I love chicken, soy sauce, sesame oil (2T), ginger, garlic, basil, sherry. Why wouldn't I?! ... I don't know either. :( It was salty - & not very flavorful. The directions are funky, too. Instead, I sauteed the garlic a bit, browned the chicken then added the sauce ingredients. No way was that going to reduce in twenty minutes & it was salty before reduction. That adding the quarter cup of water? So it takes longer to reduce, I guess. I'll play with the leftovers, but I think the recipe needs major changes to be good.

Agree with other reviewers that you need more basil, less sesame oil, and either less soy sauce or a lighter one. It has similar taste to the restaurant dish, but looks less appealing because it looks so much darker. This maybe improved with less soy sauce. Also restaurants tend to use chicken on bone, so that may be a missing element too. If I try again, I may use stew longer with chicken thighs with bone.

This recipe was quite good and turned out just like the three cup chicken we've eaten in the restaurant. We did reduce the soy sauce a little to cut down on salt.

This had great flavor. I didn't have enough Thai basil, and I wish I would have because I think more is better. It did not cook down to 1/4 cup as the recipe says... not sure how that can happen in 20 min with 1/2 cup oil. (I used mostly veggie oil, just a Tb or so of sesame - too overpowering for my taste). I liked the extra sauce though. I made rice noodles, and the extra sauce was good on them. Will make again.

Excellent dish! Thank you very much for sharing your great recipe!

My Taiwanese college roomie used to make authentic 3 Cup Chicken and this is darn close.

The taste is pretty good except it was too salty. I used chicken wings instead of thigh meat and chopped it into smaller pieces. It took longer to reduce the sauce to 1/4 cup so I turned up the heat to medium-high.

I don't use the basil but add scallions.

This was a big hit at our house. I didn't have the basil but it didn't seem to matter. I did add chili garlic sauce because my gang want their hot stuff really hot.

Really great recipe and authentic recipe! I skipped the basil leaves and chilies tho, because I've never seen them in Chinese restos-- and I got a dish exactly how we like it!!! You can also use bone-in chicken parts like legs, wings and thighs, cut up into smallish pieces. Serve in a claypot for authentic presentation! :)

This was "O.K." but not something I would make again.

This was a huge hit with my teens! I made it with rice and broiled brussel sprouts (tossed in olive oil and soy sauce)! I added sesame seeds to olive oil since I didn't have sesame oil. This was TERRIFIC!! It's a new fan favorite!

This was delicious but the next time I will use less sesame oil.

This was a huge hit with my teens! I made it with rice and broiled brussel sprouts (tossed in olive oil and soy sauce)! I added sesame seeds to olive oil since I didn't have sesame oil. This was TERRIFIC!! It's a new fan favorite!

Very ordinary stir fry-- Good but not special.

Wonderful == Will make it again.

We thought this was very good. I did reduce the sugar. Will definitely make it again

Followed recipe exactly. I found it far too salty and I added no additional salt.

I used 1/4 lite soy for this...very good! I also added broccoli for a little diversity

Loved it this is a keeper.

1/2 cup sesame oil is too much.. 1 tablespoon will be enough.

my favorite :)

I thought this was a great recipe. I also cut down the sesame oil it really doesn’t need half a cup. Everything else I kept the same. I do think that it needs more sauce so I may not cook it down as long next time and maybe add something to thicken it. Maybe the other reviewer suggestion of dredging the chicken in flour first. I’m not sure. But overall a nice dinner. I served it over jasmine rice.

This was really delicious. I had to remove the chicken after 20 minutes simmering. Turn up the heat to reduce the liquid down. And then add the chicken back with the Thai basil and peppers. A definite keeper recipe. Served it with sweet wile rice just for fun.

This did not go over that well. It was a bit too salty.

This is now my husband's favorite dish. If you can't find the dried peppers, substitute two halved, seeded jalapeno peppers and remove them before serving; it adds a nice punch without being too spicy. Also I highly recommend replacing the water with chicken stock and serving over rice noodles. Rice noodles are the perfect complement to the savory, flavorful chicken.

liked it a lot, will do again

I used chicken breast and stevia instead of sugar to keep the calorie count down as I am on a weight management program. I used a fresh chili pepper because I couldn't find a small amount of the dried pepper at the store. I really liked this and will make it again!

Never had this before so I read the reviews first. Cut the soy sauce down to a 1/4 c since I don,

This did not work out for me at all. The sauce and chicken I was able to salvage and use in a House Fried Rice recipe from this site. That was the only good thing for me about this recipe. Otherwise, I would have been upset about the loss of good ingredients. I won't make this again.

Other than I used a sugar alternative (I'm Keto) I have made this several times and we love it