General Tso's Chicken

Mama's Kitchen (Hope)'s Note:

Wow! This is even better than the BEST I have had in my fave Chinese restaurant. To make the meal go quickly prep everything the day or night before and store in the fridge. To make this easy to understand I have changed the terms to cornstarch slurry and sauce. The first is used to coat the chicken for frying, the second to coat the fried chicken. HTH I use a grater with small holes for the garlic or you can just zip all the sauce ingredients up in a blender or food processor. Enjoy! NOTE: I really appreciate all the reviews this recipe has received. I know that when making this it seems strange and like it just is not going to work. Trust that it will work even though the method and the way that the cornstarch slurry acts before cooking are so different. I was the same way the first time I made this. It does result in crispy pieces of chicken that are so like you find in a restaurant. The heat here is pretty much a balanced amount because some like it hot and some do not. Taste and add more heat as desired. Thanks again for trying this recipe. I hope that you have the great results that I have had time and again. Here is info, pics and heat levels of different chilies. http://www.foodsubs.com/Chilefre.html

• Total Time: 40 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 3 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
• 2 cups green onions, sliced
• 8 small dried chilies, seeds removed (bird pepper or thai chilies are good)

Cornstarch slurry

• 1/4 cup soy sauce, low sodium preferred
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup cornstarch

Sauce

• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup sherry wine or 1/4 cup white wine
• 14 1/2 ounces chicken broth (a can)

Directions:

1. Place sauce ingredients in a quart jar with a lid and shake to mix. If you make this ahead of time just refrigerate until needed, shaking it again when you are ready to use it. This also keeps your dirty dishes down.
2. Mix cornstarch slurry in a large bowl- the mixture will be strange but trust me it works. It will be VERY thick almost paste like. Add chicken pieces to coat. Using a fork remove ONE chicken piece at a time and let the excess mixture drip off. YES even though the mixture has a weird consistency it will not stick like paste and the excess will drip off. Add chicken to the hot (350 degree) oil and fry until crispy. Only cook 7 or 8 chicken pieces at a time. You do not want to lower the temp of the oil by cooking too many at a time. You can use a simple cooking or candy thermometer to judge the temp of the oil.
3. Drain on paper towels. Keep warm- I just put them in the oven with the oven off. Repeating until all chicken is fried.
4. In a separate wok or large skillet add a small amount of oil and heat to 400 degrees. Again, a candy thermometer works great. You can fry all the chicken, drain the oil to the desired amount and use the same pan if you like.
5. Add green onions and hot peppers and stir fry about 30 seconds.
6. Stir sauce mixture, and then add to pan with onions and peppers, cook until thick. If it gets too thick, add a little water. The thickness of the sauce should be similar to what you get when ordering this at a restaurant.
7. Add chicken to sauce in wok, and cook until all is hot and bubbly. The quicker this is done the crispier the chicken stays.
8. Serve over rice.

Reviews

[anderspt02]

This is an absolutely wonderful recipe!!! So happy I found it. I did make a few changes though...

1. In order to make this dish a little healthier, I skipped frying the chicken. I just seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked in a small amount of olive oil until crispy. Once the sauce was on it, I did not miss the fried part of it and you really could not tell a difference.

2. Sauce: I added fresh ginger and orange juice instead of water. Both added another set of great flavors.

3. I briefly steamed some fresh broccoli and red peppers and added them into the sauce with the chicken.

I will definitley be making this again!

And to all the negative reviews, don't pay attention. People need to use some of their own decision making in the kitchen instead of relying on a recipe to tell them EXACTLY what to do and EXACTLY how long to do something...when the chicken is crispy and cooked, it's done! When the sauce is as thick as you'd like it, take it off the heat :)

[autpenper]

I skipped frying the chicken, and instead dusted it with cornstarch seasoned with salt and pepper, then browned it in a small amount of oil. I followed the rest of the recipe exactly, and it tured out great!

[atcmoto]

wow i thought this was pretty good!! i am not a cook but i can follow directions and measure. i had no problems making this. the slurry worked fine. i'm not sure what others are complaining about. i don't own a thermometer but had no problems. my chicken was crispy. follow the directions and its good.