What
San bei ji is chicken braised with soy sauce, rice wine and oil. In the Jiangxi tradition, one cup each of rice wine, lard and soy sauce gives it its name; the Taiwanese style uses sesame oil in place of lard and finishes with whole garlic cloves and basil.3,4,5,6
When
Among the recipes Guo Zhonghao examined, the name first appears in 1956; the Jiangxi gazetteers and Ming, Qing and Republic-era cookbooks examined contain only similar braises. Its presence on Taiwan restaurant menus in the 1970s rests on chefs' oral recollections, while the Jiangxi origin account has no dated record.1,2,3,4,5
Where
One account traces san bei ji to Ningdu in Jiangxi and its arrival in Taiwan to Hakka migrants; another places its origin in the countryside of southern Taiwan. Its origin is disputed between Jiangxi and Taiwan, and this entry does not choose between them.1,2,3,4,5
How
The traditional Jiangxi method uses one cup each of rice wine, lard and soy sauce, braised in a clay pot without added water. The Taiwanese version uses sesame oil and basil; the Jiangxi version uses lard and sweet rice wine. Both Taiwanese recipes fry ginger and garlic first, add chicken, braise it with soy sauce, rice wine and sugar, then add basil after reducing the sauce.4,5,6,8,9
Why
Taiwan has two accounts: in one, a southern farmer afraid a sick chicken would die killed it and cooked it with soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and ginger to waste nothing; in the other, it is a drier form of sesame-oil chicken eaten after childbirth. The Jiangxi account tells of a jailer cooking chicken for Wen Tianxiang. These are accounts, not records.1,2,3,4,5,6
Impact and influence
The dish spread through free-range chicken restaurants. A March 25, 2024 feature mentions Taiwan's Chi Chia Chuang and Shin Yeh Shiao Ju as 2 Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurants; an August 12, 2025 report lists both on the 2025 Bib Gourmand list.3,7
The Jailer and Wen Tianxiang
Legend has it that when Wen Tianxiang was held by the Yuan at the end of the Song, a jailer in Ningdu cooked a chicken for him with one cup each of rice wine, lard and soy sauce. The tellings differ on who cooked and what the three cups were, and Guo Zhonghao found no early record of the story or the name.
Told in: A local tale from Ningdu, Jiangxi, told in The Paper in 2018 and 2025 and in Chinese Wikipedia, all of which tell it as a tale; no early text recording it was found.
The Poor Scholar's Mother
Legend has it that the mother of a poor scholar cooked a chicken with rice wine, soy sauce and tea-seed oil to send him off to the examinations. The dish later became a banquet dish, and people called it scholar-champion chicken.
Told in: A local tale from Ningdu, told in a column article in The Paper of July 20, 2025 as a tale; no dated text was found.
The Taiwanese Farm Chicken
Older cooks in southern Taiwan say that a farmer once feared a sick chicken would die, killed it, and cooked it with soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and ginger, and that this is how the dish came about. Another account calls it a drier form of the sesame-oil chicken eaten after childbirth.
Told in: A spoken account of cooks in southern Taiwan, told in Guo Zhonghao's foodNEXT column of June 7, 2022 and in the 2024 MICHELIN Guide Taiwan feature; it is what interviewed cooks said, not a dated text.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the Taiwanese style of three-cup chicken as I make it at home, with sesame oil and basil at the end, not the Jiangxi tradition with lard. I do not use a clay pot and a single wok is enough, so it is a simplified home version. The amounts and timings below are my own choices at home, informed by two published recipes, and I take the three seasonings in roughly equal measure.
Ingredients
- Bone-in chicken thighs 600 g, chopped into pieces of about 3 cm
- Sesame oil 30 ml
- Ginger 6 slices
- Garlic 8 cloves, left whole
- Dried chili 1
- Light soy sauce 30 ml
- Rice wine (or Shaoxing wine) 30 ml
- Sugar 8 g
- Water 60 ml
- Basil leaves a large handful, about 20 g
Steps
- Pat the chicken dry with paper towels so that it spits less when it goes into the pan.
- Heat a wok over medium-low heat, add the sesame oil, and fry the ginger, whole garlic cloves and dried chili until fragrant, about 1 minute. Do not let them burn.
- Turn the heat to medium, add the chicken, and brown the outside lightly, about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Pour in the soy sauce, wine, sugar and water, cover, and braise over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, turning the chicken once halfway.
- Remove the lid, turn the heat to high and reduce the sauce until it is thick and clings to the chicken. Cut open the thickest piece: it is done only when no pink is left and the juices run clear.
- Turn off the heat, add the basil, toss a few times, and plate it as soon as the leaves have just softened.
Tips
- I always add the basil last and let the heat of the pan wilt it, because long cooking turns it dark; this is my own habit.
- Tastes differ in saltiness, so I start with a little less soy sauce and taste it while the sauce reduces before adding more.
Allergens: soy, wheat, sesame
