What is the difference between Szechuan and Hunan Chicken?

Szechuan cuisine, which can also be spelled as Sichuan or Szechwan, is a kind of Chinese dish that originated from the Sichuan province of the southwestern part of China. This part of China is famous for the Sichuan peppercorn and the unique, bold flavors. Szechuan gets its sauce as a chili garlic paste that is made with ground or whole chili.

The ingredients that are contained in this cuisine include skinless, boneless chicken breast, cornstarch and egg whites for the meats, cooking wine or dry sherry, Shao Xing rice, chili paste or Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, crushed red chilies, carrot strips, chopped green onions, soy sauce, cayenne pepper, minced ginger, sliced red bell peppers, and vegetable oil to make the sauce.

On the other hand, Hunan cuisine can also be referred to as Xiang cuisine, and it originated from the western Hunan province. The Hunan chicken recipes include light soy sauce, shredded ginger, scallions, wine vinegar, salt, cornstarch, bite-sized chicken meat, sherry, Chili Peppers, chicken broth, sugar, and powdered anise pepper.

There are a lot of people who just love Chinese food and would like to get the opportunity to have Chinese takeout from time to time. Some people can be confused with the differences between the two because they both contain garlic and chili. Hunan is known to be a bit spicier as compared to Szechuan chicken.

The Szechuan chicken will have a more sweet and spicy taste. Hunan is known to be plainer, but it will have the hot flavoring that you would like, especially if you do not really like to have anything sweet. Take note that these two types of flavors can be used for chicken but can also be used for different types of meat. It can be common to have Hunan beef and Szechuan beef too.