General Tso's Chicken (Tso Chung Gai)

"A Chinese restaurant favorite. My personal favorite version. :)"
 
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photo by Jonathan Melendez photo by Jonathan Melendez
photo by Jonathan Melendez
photo by Lavender Lynn photo by Lavender Lynn
photo by monmamoni photo by monmamoni
photo by monmamoni photo by monmamoni
photo by treborcam2 photo by treborcam2
Ready In:
30mins
Ingredients:
17
Serves:
4
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ingredients

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directions

  • Mix together egg, salt, black pepper, and cornstarch in a bowl.
  • Add the chicken cubes; mix to coat, and marinate for at least 15 minutes.
  • In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, garlic, ginger,hoisin sauce, sugar, rice wine vinegar, and sherry for the sauce; reserve.
  • Heat wok over high heat for a minute or so; add about 3 1/2-4 cups of peanut oil to wok, and heat to 350 degrees F.
  • With tongs, remove chicken cubes individually from bowl, dust with 1 tbsp. cornstarch, shaking off excess, and place in the hot oil.
  • Deep-fry chicken pieces for 1 1/2-2 minutes, until browned and crisp.
  • turn off heat, and remove chicken with a wire strainer and drain over a bowl.
  • Pour off all but 1 1/2 tbsp. of the oil from the wok.
  • Heat the wok over high heat for 20-30 seconds; add the chilies and stir-fry for 15-20 seconds, then add the green onions, cooking for 30 seconds more.
  • Add the chicken and cook, stirring, for 1 minute; remove all from wok and set aside.
  • Stir sauce mixture into wok,stirring well, until sauce thickens into a nice glaze
  • add chicken and chilis/onions back into the wok, stirring until everything is well coated, about 1 1/2-2 minutes.
  • Place on platter; and garnish with steamed broccoli florets.
  • Serve with rice.

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Reviews

  1. FABULOUS. Worth the effort, though not as easy as a 20-min prep recipe may seem. Set your kitchen up like a kitchen show, with all the ingredients ready beforehand and you'll be ready to wok and roll! Doubel the sauce recipe and you'll be evn happier.
     
  2. What a fantastic recipe, this was so good my husband will not take me out to a Chinese restaurant anymore!!!! We had this in restaurants but I thought this was better. With many Chinese dishes I don't achieve "that restaurant taste" I did with this one!! Worth the effort, thank you so much for posting this.
     
  3. We LOVED this dish. It is just as good as the General's Chicken we get from our favorite local Chinese restaurant. Yum! Yum! : ) mmm29
     
  4. I always have to at least double all my recipes, because I'm never sure how many teenage boys will be showing up to eat. There were three here tonight plus my husband and myself. Everyone raved. Easy recipe to put together, very easy to vary the amount of heat. Definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing.
     
  5. Restaurant quality! I have gone to a lot of different chinese restaurant and some dont even come close to this one. Family thought it was a take out and when they found out I made it, they were impress. Thanks so much!
     
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Tweaks

  1. Awesome, I found this great recipe to be something that my boys really enjoyed and that's a big plus... there wasn't much conversation happening during dinner, just a lot of utensil sounds! I agree with TheWrays on doubling the sauce! Out of necessity... for not having all the right ingredients, but most and I had great alternatives, I had to changed the recipe. I used 1.5 lbs of chicken thighs & I didn't deep fry them, I used about 4 ounces of dark truffle oil (only type available, not being olive). I also added about a half ounce of pure sesame oil to the fry oil. For lack of broccoli, I used frozen peas & instead of rice, I utilized egg noodles. This being said, next time I'll do it as it's recommended! Other small changes, black bean sauce for garlic, rice vinegar yes, dark soy sauce yes with ginger flavor added so no ginger, no hoisin sauce, sherry was replaced with a thick dark cooking sake and I used a thick stir fry sauce that was flavored with garlic as well... all in all, it worked out great!
     
  2. Even with the mistakes I made this came out great. I ended up using red wine vinegar instead of rice wine vinegar (didn't have it) and I used too much. <br/><br/>I will make this again but next time instead of frying in the wok I will use a my deep fryer. Which I think will make things easier.
     
  3. Made this tonight, very good followed recipe except ommited chili peppers. (daughter won't eat) Nice balance of flavors will make again but I think next time I will try a little less hoisin sauce. I love hoisin sauce and I think it lends authenticity to this dish. But I think it was a little too overpowering. Actually before I cooked it sauce tasted perfect, when I cooked and reduced it down to make glaze it gota little too strong. Maybe next time instead of reducing I will thicken with a little cornstarch instead. Thanks for otherwise great recipe.
     
  4. Very good recipe. I did make some substitutions though. I couldn't get the dry sherry here at my local grocery store, so I used cooking wine. I also used regular white vinegar instead of the rice wine vinegar. I also used the crushed red pepper flakes instead of the dried hot chili peppers. (As you can tell...I live out in the sticks...and have to make lots of substitutions unless I plan ahead and go to Wal-mart...which is only 45 min. away...so I choose to sub) Very good though, and didn't affect anything by substituting...and if it did...we couldn't tell it. Thanks for posting this great recipe.
     
  5. I had to try this one - we were not disappointed! The chicken didn't crisp up quite as much as I'd hoped, but I substituted vegetable oil for peanut oil, so it isn't affecting my rating (plus, it still tasted great). I also didn't have any sherry on hand, so I substituted Grand Marnier liquor and slightly reduced the amount of sugar. Excellent!
     

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I am a longtime member since 2002. While I have many recipes here, most of my current recipes are on my food blog at palatablepastime.com I may occasionally post something extra I have here. If you have questions, you can always contact me at contact@palatablepastime.com
 
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