To further understand the dynamical characteristics of chaotic systems with a hidden attractor and coexisting attractors, we investigated the fundamental dynamics of a novel three-dimensional (3D) chaotic system derived by adding a simple constant term to the Yang–Chen system, which includes the bifurcation diagram, Lyapunov exponents spectrum, and basin of attraction, under different parameters. In addition, an offset boosting control method is presented to the state variable, and a numerical simulation of the system is also presented. Furthermore, the unstable cycles embedded in the hidden chaotic attractors are extracted in detail, which shows the effectiveness of the variational method and 1D symbolic dynamics. Finally, the adaptive synchronization of the novel system is successfully designed, and a circuit simulation is implemented to illustrate the flexibility and validity of the numerical results. Theoretical analysis and simulation results indicate that the new system has complex dynamical properties and can be used to facilitate engineering applications.