Szechwan Diced Chicken (四川辣子雞）

This is a traditional Szechwan dish that can be very spicy, or merely spicy looking.  But the chicken itself is always tasty.

1. Cut 2 boneless, skinless chicken legs into 3/4"-square size chunks.  Marinate the diced chicken for at least 30 minutes, with 1/2 tsp of salt and 2 Tbsp of rice cooking wine. Strain out the fluid and pat dry with paper towel.
2. [High Heat] Add 1/2 cup (i.e., 8 Tbsp) of veggie oil into a flat bottom cooking pan.  Heat the oil till it's hot (for 1-2 minutes, or more reliably, till a wet chopstick that is dipped into the oil produces fast rising bubbles).  Note- If you see smoke coming from the oil, it's too hot.  Take the cooking pan off the heat first before doing anything else, then turn down the heat. The chopstick used for testing oil temperature is wet but not dripping wet (by dipping it into water and swinging vigorously downward to get rid of the dripping water).      
3. Place the diced chicken into the hot oil gently, and fry till golden but not brown (6-8 mins; stir frequently- this is more a stir-fry than deep-fry).  Turn heat to low, fish out the diced chicken using a spatula with holes (to drain out the oil).   Note- High oil temperature is meant to make the meat surface crispy but the inside tender.
4. [Medium Heat] Use the oil left in the cooking pan, add  1/4 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of sugar, 2-3 stalks of green onion (cut into 1" segments),  6-8 slices of ginger,  6 cloves of garlic (pressed flat, coarsely sliced),  1 Tbsp of Hot Chili Pepper Oil (see this post), and optionally, 1 Tbsp of chili powder (to make it more spicy hot), and 1/2 - 1 cup of dried chili pepper (hand-torn open into halves).  Stir the mix frequently till fragrant.  Note- If the dried chili pepper is spicy hot, this dish would turn out to be too spicy for most (reduce or eliminate the Hot Chili Pepper Oil and chili powder).   Otherwise, the degree of spicy-hotness will depend on the Chili Pepper Oil and Chili Powder when the dried chili pepper is used primarily to decorate the dish. Also note the basic seasonings of Chinese Cooking- salt, sugar, green onion, garlic, and ginger (鹽、糖、蔥、薑、蒜).  The common use of Sichuan Pepper (花椒) for this dish is folded into the Chili Pepper Oil, so we don't have to deal with the hassle of chewing on those peppercorns, since they are hard to separate out in this step.　　
5. [High Heat]  Turn up the heat, add the diced chicken，2-3 stalks of green onion (cut into 1" segments) and 1-2 tsp of Sichuan Pepper powder (花椒粉), stir and mix all the ingredients evenly for 1 -2 minutes, and serve.   Here is a picture of the finished product.