General Tso's Chicken

Well, well, well, after starting my third week of work as a sales associate at Macy's I finally have time again to blog. So, what is this post about? What I ate at least 3 times since working at Macy's which is General Tso's Chicken. This goes way back to my post on Orange Chicken. These chicken dishes are Americanized chinese food that are simply addicting.

Maybe it's the crispy fried chicken. Maybe it's the sticky, salty, spicy and sweet sauce. Maybe it's just because it tastes really good. Whatever your motivation to order this dish, we can all agree that even though it's not real chinese food, it's damn good!

I've tried many General Tso's Chicken recipes and yet, I can't seem to pinpoint the one that I taste at the mall. Even though this recipe is good, it's not the same. It seems to be missing a little something something. But for now, it will definitely keep my wallet nice and fat, just the way I like it.

General Tso's Chicken

Original Recipe from "Mama's Kitchen (Hope)"

Ingredients

3 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
2 cups green onion
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
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.

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.
Drain on paper towels. Keep warm- I just put them in the oven with the oven off. Repeating until all chicken is fried.

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.

Add green onions and hot peppers and stir fry about 30 seconds.

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.

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.

-Aaron John