Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Dapanji (Big Plate Chicken)
A heroic platter of chicken, potatoes, and peppers in a star-anise chili sauce, with wide noodles for the gravy.
Chinese (Uyghur) · medium · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 45 min
~749 cal · 80g protein · 57g carbs · 19g fat · 6g fiber · 8g sugars · 5g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Dapanji, 'big plate chicken', is the heroic signature dish of Xinjiang in China's far northwest: a whole chicken with potatoes, peppers, and star anise, then piled over hand-pulled belt noodles that soak up the sauce. Its sheer abundance is the point, meant to be shared by a crowd.
The dish reflects Xinjiang's crossroads culture, blending Chinese, Central Asian, and Uyghur influences, with warming spices like star anise, Sichuan pepper, and dried chili. The is savory, gently numbing, and rich, the noodles added at the end to mop up every drop.
Eaten communally from one enormous platter, dapanji is a highlight of Xinjiang's cooking.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
2.5 lbs chicken, chopped bone-in
3 potatoes, big chunks
1 onion, in chunks
1 red pepper, in chunks
1 green pepper, in chunks
6 dried chilies
1 fresh chili
2 star anise
1 stick cinnamon
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
2 tbsp ginger, sliced
6 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tbsp doubanjiang (Sichuan chili bean paste)
Hard to find? red miso or Korean doenjang with a spoonful of chilli oil - for Sichuan cooking the chilli has to go back in separately, since plain bean paste gives you the earthiness without any of the heat or the red
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rock sugar
1.5 cups beer or
12 oz wide wheat noodles (belt noodles)
Instructions
1
Melt the sugar in oil until amber, then add the chicken (or mushrooms) and brown it in the caramel.
✎ Chef’s note
Watch the sugar closely: amber gives a rich colour and flavour, but a few seconds more turns it acrid and bitter.
2
Add the ginger, garlic, doubanjiang, dried chilies, and whole spices and toss 2 minutes until the oil reddens.
3
Pour in the beer or stock and soy, add the potatoes, and simmer covered 25 minutes.
4
Add the peppers and onion and reduce uncovered until the sauce is thick and glossy.
5
Boil the wide noodles and pile the whole dish onto one big platter, noodles underneath and the saucy chicken over the top.
Xinjiang roadhouse tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Xinjiang. Laghman is worked rather than rolled. A rope of dough is oiled, coiled and rested, then pulled and slapped against the bench until it doubles and doubles again, and it is finished with a stir-fry of lamb, peppers and tomato. Cumin rather than Sichuan pepper is the spice that marks this end of China.
🗺️
China. China holds eight great regional cuisines within one border, the fire of Sichuan, the delicacy of Cantonese dim sum, the wheat noodles of the north, and more. Techniques like stir-frying, steaming, and braising, plus soy, ginger, and rice wine, unify an endlessly diverse table.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from China
Mapo TofuSilken tofu in a glowing, numbing-hot chili bean sauce, Chengdu’s most famous export.
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Hongshao Rou (Red-Braised Pork)Pork belly lacquered in caramel, soy, and rice wine until it trembles, Shanghai’s definition of home.
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Good to know
Storing it: Best fresh. Leftovers keep 2 days refrigerated; loosen with a splash of water or oil as you reheat so they do not clump.
Make it a China meal
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Frequently asked questions
What is Dapanji (Big Plate Chicken)?
A heroic platter of chicken, potatoes, and peppers in a star-anise chili sauce, with wide noodles for the gravy.
Where does Dapanji (Big Plate Chicken) come from?
Dapanji (Big Plate Chicken) is a Chinese (Uyghur) dish from Xinjiang, China.
Can Dapanji (Big Plate Chicken) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Dapanji (Big Plate Chicken) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Dapanji (Big Plate Chicken) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Dapanji (Big Plate Chicken) take to make?
About 65 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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