Monday, July 27, 2009

General Tso's Chicken

General Tso's chicken was first introduced to America in the early 1970's in New York and it is known to be one of Hunanese Chinese dishes. (See my other Chinese recipes) The original General Tso's chicken is supposed to be all spicy and rarely sweet but America adapted the sweetness to the recipe. So now we enjoy more of an American style General Tso's, spicy, sweet, and tangy all at the same time. If you own a deep fryer, go ahead and use it to fry your chicken so that you can have nice, crispy chicken bites. Personally, I like to panfry my chicken at home, just because it seems to be much healthier that way. I mean, I do enjoy deep fried chicken, don't get me wrong. But the panfried chicken turned out crispy too. So the choice is yours!

General Tso's Chicken

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs (cut into 1-inch bites)
5 dried red chilli peppers (or more for spicier result)
2-3 green onions (sliced)
2 eggs (beaten)
1/2 cup cornstarch
Oil (for frying) *for panfrying, I used 3 tablespoons conola oil

Sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons rice wine
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
pinch of ginger powder
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Direction:

In large bowl, combing cornstarch and eggs and mix well. Stir the chicken in the mixture until the chicken is evenly coated.

In a wok or a deepfrying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil on high heat. When the oil is heated, drop the chicken bites one by one. Fry the chicken until the batter is crispy and golen brown and the chicken is cooked all the way through. (You will need more oil as you go, about 1-2 more tablespoons) Place the chicken on a papertoweled plate to drain oil.

Make sauce: In a small bowl, combine all the sauce ingredients.

Bring the cooked chicken in a wok or a large pan over medium heat. Add the sauce and stir frequently until the sauce has thickend to your liking.

Sprinkle green onions on top and serve over/with rice.

Enjoy!!

6 comments:

  1. you know, this is one of my favorite take-out dishes, but when it’s homemade, almost nothing can compare. great recipe!

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  2. Grace-
    Thanks for visiting my blog!

    Rebecca-
    I wish I knew more of the history but this is all I know. :)

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  3. Humm!! Ce mets est toujours winner chez moi:)xxx

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  4. General Tso's is my favorite thing to order at a Chinese restaurant, so I really look forward to trying this recipe. I'm usually intimidated by Chinese cooking (lots of odd ingredients) but this sounds simple.

    Thanks for visiting my blog. :)

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  5. Thanks a lot. I will use seitan to make this. It looks wonderful.

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