What to do when your garden gives you an eggplant and kid wants spaghetti (and wants to help cook)? Make this! Three-cup chicken, or "san bei ji" , has a lot of varieties and potential ingredients. This one is the fast version: what you make when you don't want to break out the clay pot and wait. The "three cups" traditionally are soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil. But a cup of oil My recipe also includes vinegar in the liquid for an extra savory flavor. Ingredients can be swapped out here to match your taste - here the vegetable medley is onions, eggplant and celery.This dish is best with steamed rice, IMO, but in this case the request was for noodles ...Pan fry chicken thighs on medium heat, covered, turning once. When fully cooked, remove from the pan and set aside. Chop into bite size cubes either before or after cooking.Add sesame oil, onion and eggplant to the pan and cover, letting the eggplant absorb the liquid. When soft, add chopped celery and toss.Add approximately equal portions of rice wine, dark soy sauce, and black vinegar, mixed with corn starch. (Balsamic vinegar makes an OK substitute, at least in this dish.)Add chicken back to the pan, and cook until slightly thickened.Optional: Add fresh basil leaves near the end of cooking.
