recipe: general tso's chicken

so after a lunch of a traditional italian pizza, it only seemed appropriate to cook up some chinese food. day 2 of 2012... apparently 2012 will not be the year for healthy eats, but a year to get my lady assets to grow back haha. i adopted the recipe off of Tracy's Culinary Adventures - i didn't research tso's recipes much, but hers was the prettiest picture on foodgawker.com so that's what we went with.

ingredients list:

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 3 tbsp hoisin sauce

- 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar

- 3 tbsp ketchup

- 2 tbsp soy sauce

- 1 tsp chili oil

- 1.5 tsp Sriracha

- 1/2 cup water

- dried chili peppers (i used about 5)

- 1/4 cup cornstarch

- 1 tsp cayenne pepper

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

- 1/4 cup vegetable oil

- 1/4 cup green onions, chopped

- 3 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced

to make: mix together the first 9 ingredients (through the dried chili peppers) and set aside.

 

in a small bowl, mix together the cornstarch, garlic powder, and cayenne. dredge chicken in the cornstarch mixture. heat vegetable oil in large skillet, and saute chicken until golden brown. remove chicken from pan and set aside. drain the oil from the pan, reserving 1 tbsp.

 

fry the ginger in the reserved oil for about 1 minute, then pour in the sauce mixture. bring to a boil over medium heat and simmer for about 3-4 minutes, until the sauce starts to thicken. add the chicken back to the skillet and cook until the sauce starts to get nice and syrupy. sprinkle on the green onions before serving.

***

loved this! the only thing it was missing as compared to chinese take out was the very thick fried coating since this was pan-fried, but with a little egg dip action that could be adjusted. the flavor was great, and it had juuust enough heat to it. with a lil jasmine rice it was a perfect din. 7*******.