General Tso’s Chicken is one of the most popular Chinese dishes. It is essentially deep-fried chicken drenched in a sweet, savoury and spicy sauce.
Many don’t dare ask how to make this recipe, assuming it’s difficult. But the good news is that it’s super easy to make at home.
Ingredients:
- 280g boneless skinless chicken meat, (thigh or breast, cut into bite-sized pieces)
- 1/2 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- oil for deep frying
- 1 1/2 tablespoons oil
- 3 slices peeled ginger, (finely minced)
- 1 clove garlic, (finely minced)
- 4-5 dried red chiles, (rinsed and seeded)
- 2 stalks scallion, (white-part only, cut into 1-inch lengths)
Sauce:
- 2 1/2 – 3 tablespoons Chinese rice vinegar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon Hoisin sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon Shaoxing Wine
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Method:
- Marinate the chicken meat with the Shaoxing wine and salt for 15 minutes.
- Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Coat the chicken generously with 1/3 cup cornstarch. Heat up the oil for deep-frying.
- Deep-fry chicken until it turns light brown. Dish out with a strainer, draining the excess oil by laying the chicken on a dish lined with paper towels.
- Heat up a wok with 1 1/2 tablespoons oil.
- Add minced ginger, garlic, and dried chilies into the wok and stir-fry until there’s the spicy aroma of the chilies.
- Pour the sauce into the wok. When the sauce boils and thickens, add the chicken, stir to combine well.
- Add scallions and stir a few times, dish out and serve immediately.
This article first appeared in rasamalaysia.com
Low Bee Yinn is a food blogger and cookbook author.