General Tso’s Chicken

palatablepastime

8 years ago

General Tso’s Chicken

By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime

The event I have for today is about comfort food. To me, comfort food is all about food that hits the major pleasure points in the brain, and a couple of those things for me are Chinese and spicy. And fried. But I do like a spread of vegetables as well, even as I indulge myself.

I don’t think this dish ever had much headway or tradition in China as such, much like the history of chop suey. But Chinese cuisine in the United States is a force of its own. This is the way I have had it served to me (in my area of the midwest) as I understand there are regional variances that are similar. Mine was always served with broccoli, although I notice places don’t tend to serve as many vegetables anymore, especially in things like sweet and sour where often you just get a bunch of fritters with sauce. This is meant to be served with rice as well.

This is probably all for me for a few days as I am down with a chest cold. I’ve been lucky enough to avoid one for a long time, but now I am crawling around my home with my breathing sounding like a mix between tree frogs and the Predator. Life’s a jungle, isn’t it?

I think I will go curl up somewhere, read a few books and sip steaming bowls of soup. It’s what we do, right?

C’ya later-

General Tso's Chicken

Servings: 3-4
Time: 40mins
Difficulty: moderate
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Sauce Ingredients:

1/4 cup dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons shaoxing rice wine (or dry white wine)
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon grated ginger
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon ketchup
1 teaspoon sriracha

Stirfry Ingredients:

1 pound boneless chicken thigh chunks
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons egg white
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon shaoxing rice wine (or dry white wine)

Coating Ingredients:

1/2 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons flour

Other Ingredients:

Cooking oil
3 cups broccoli
6 scallions, chopped

Method:
1. Chop chicken into bite sized chunks.
2. Whisk together the 3 tbsp cornstarch, egg white, ground ginger and 1 tbsp rice wine; stir together with chicken and let sit 30 minutes.
3. Stir together ingredients for sauce and set aside in a small bowl.
4. Heat oil in a skillet for shallow frying.
5. Stir together the cornstarch and flour for the coating; dredge pieces of chiken in this, shaking off excess coating.
6. Fry chicken pieces until golden and crisp, then drain.
7. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok and add broccoli, cooking until crisp tender; set aside.
8. Add sauce ingredients to wok and cook until bubbly and lightly thickened, then add the chicken and scallions to the wok, stirring to coat.
9. Serve chicken with broccoli and steamed rice.