Kung Pao Chicken is a classic Chinese stir-fry of chicken with spicy brown sauce, vegetables and peanuts.
Kung Pao Chicken
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
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Kung Pao has been a longtime favorite of mine and is my recipe of the day with the blogging group Improv Cooking Challenge.
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We group monthly to share recipes that use two specific ingredients in the same recipe. This month we are using ginger and peanuts.
This particular recipe brings back memories of my mom and days when we worked together at the Bloomin’ Flowers factory in St. Louis, where we spent some time making everlasting flower arrangements for sale at local mall kiosks during the holiday season. At lunch we often went to a fried rice take-out nearby, and Kung Pao was our favorite.
And occasionally I would make this at home when we had dinner together. I made Chinese food a lot. She’d brag about my food- to the point some people thought it was all I cooked. Ha!
You can be the judge of whether or not you find my version worthy of Mom’s braggadocio. Let me know if you like it in the comments.
Improv Cooking Challenge: September 2021
Peanuts and Ginger
- Asian Noodle Salad by A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Kung Pao Chicken by Palatable Pastime
- Quinoa Dosa with Peanut Coconut Chutney by Sneha’s Recipe
- Minty Tomato Peanut Chutney by Magical Ingredients
- Haitian Tablet Pistach by Pandemonium Noshery
Kung Pao Chicken
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Kung Pao Chicken
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Kung Pao Chicken
Equipment
- Wok skillet
Ingredients
Stir-Fry:
- 1 pound boneless chicken breast (diced)
- cornstarch
- 1 cup diced carrot
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 3/4 cup unsalted peanuts
- 1/4 cup small dried hot red peppers
- peanut oil
Spicy Brown Sauce:
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger root
- 1 tablespoon hot chili oil
- 1-1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
- Mix ingredients for spicy brown sauce in a small bowl and set aside until needed.
- Velvet the chicken by coating in cornstarch and shaking off excess.
- Heat oil in wok or large skillet (enough to adequately fry the chicken, and stir-fry the chicken until lightly browned; remove chicken from the wok.
- Drain off excess oil and leave one tablespoon of it.
- Heat oil and stir fry the vegetables until crisp-tender.
- Stir in the peanuts and hot chili peppers, cooking about half a minute, then stir in the sauce mixture and cook until thickened.
- Serve with steamed rice.
Notes
Don’t Forget to Pin and Save the Recipe!
This recipe has been updated from 5.8.16 for a recipe card and photo update.
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I love Kung Pao Chicken and your post reminded me of the first time I made it and my father in law was at our house for dinner! He was a sport and ate as much as he could, but apparently his heat tolerance is not as good as mine! 🙂
Well, you can leave the dry peppers out. I still remember the time I cooked Chinese for a party and my brother was there spooning the hot mustard over his stir-fry like soy sauce and I said “Mike, maybe you should taste it first” and he went all testosterone on me. My cousin and I sat back and watched his brain explode. LOL! And that was just mustard! Ha!
Thank you
I hope you enjoy!
This is a really fun post. I remember the first time I mistakenly bit into a red chili. Just to say, I’ll never forget it. Never.
That’s funny because if I don’t get at least three of them to eat, I might just cry. But I am a chile head like that. The dry ones are not nearly as hot as the fresh red Thai chilies. Those wicked little things I don’t usually eat more than one of any more.
One of my favorites! And, I too prefer it with onions, carrots and celery. No green peppers.
I’m glad we agree on that! Peppers belong in pepper steak. LOL!
Oh my gosh, this sounds amazing! I love having MYO Takeout nights at home–saves so much money and calories! Pinning this for later, YUM 🙂
It does save quite a lot of money! I hope you like it!
I love, love, LOVE Kung Pao chicken and the only time I made it at home, didn’t quite match the yummy version that I enjoyed in restaurants. I’d love to try your recipes and like you, it has to be super hot!
I was very happy with the way it turned out. If you don’t like eating the dry fried peppers you can always add a bit of toasted chili oil, although that tends to make the stirfry a little oily.
Wow- this looks amazing! To be honest I never order Kung Pao, but I think I will make this before I order it, based on your review of some recipes out there!
If you have a good restaurant you have no worries, but not all restaurant are created equal.
This is one of my mom’s fave dishes when she eats out!
It’s definitely classic. Share the recipe with her! 🙂
It certainly looks delicious.