I knocked on the door of Fuchsia Dunlop’s new digs in East London and was ushered into a spacious kitchen, still stuffed with unopened boxes from her recent move, with a charming view of a matchbox-­size but sunny backyard. I was there for a personal cooking lesson from Dunlop, author of “The Food of Sichuan,” on making bang bang chicken.

The dish—which earned its name for the sound of butchers chopping through the meat—is a descendant of a snack of chicken cooked simply and sauced spicy. And it’s a great example, at least to me, of the essence of Sichuan cooking. Simple ingredients such as tofu and poached chicken are transformed using pantry ingredients that provide immediate built-in flavor, such as vinegar, soy sauce, chili oil and the like. Throw in a few powerhouse fresh ingredients to finish—scallions, ginger, garlic—and the makeover is complete.

For this dish, a whole chicken is gently poached then cooled, while sesame seeds and Sichuan peppercorns are pan-toasted separately; the peppercorns are then ground. For the sauce, we combine either sesame paste or tahini (a perfectly suitable stand-in) with soy, sesame oil, black vinegar, the ground Sichuan peppercorns and a bit of reserved poaching liquid until creamy and smooth. The sauce is drizzled over the shredded chicken, which then is topped with pan-fried peanuts, scallion greens and the toasted sesame seeds.

What begins as a bland chicken salad quickly ends with a bang. That’s the charm and beauty of the cooking of Sichuan.

Christopher Kimball

Christopher Kimball is founder of Milk Street, which produces Milk Street Magazine, Milk Street Television on PBS, and the weekly public radio show Milk Street Radio. He founded Cook’s Magazine in 1980 and was host and executive producer of America’s Test Kitchen until 2016. Kimball is the author of several books, including "The Yellow Farmhouse" and "Fannie’s Last Supper."