General Tso's Chicken

• servings: 2-3

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts, cubed

1 egg, beaten

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp & 1 tsp black vinegar

1½ cups flour

1½ cups cornstarch

1½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

⅓ cup chicken stock

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp hoisin sauce

2 tsp chili garlic paste (can sub sriracha, or minced fresh chilis and garlic)

1 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp neutral high heat oil

1 in knob of ginger, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 dried chilis, cut in half (anything you can find will work, can even use chili flakes)

Directions

We start by making the sauce. Set a medium pot over medium heat. Add the 2 tsp of neutral oil, the ginger, minced garlic, and the dried chilis. Let them toast for about 90 seconds.

Pour in all the chicken stock, 2 tbsp soy sauce, brown sugar, chili garlic paste, sesame oil, and hoisin sauce, and let that come to a boil for about 3 minute or until it has reduced a bit. Add a little bit of cornstarch slurry (2:1 water:cornstarch ratio, only about 1 tsp water) that’s been mixed in a separate bowl to avoid clumping. It should thicken even more as it simmers. Once thickened to your liking, remove from the heat and store for later use.

Combine the cubed chicken with the egg, 1 tbsp soy sauce, and 1 tbsp black vinegar, and mix well. To bread the chicken, add the mixture to the flour, 1.5 cups cornstarch, salt, and baking powder.

From here, there are two options for frying the chicken. To air fry, give the breaded chicken a light spray of oil and cook at 400 F for 12 minutes, shaking them up in the middle. For the double frying method, bring about 2 inches of peanut oil up to 325 F over medium heat. Fry the breaded chicken in batches, only just cooking the chicken through and starting to get some color for the first fry. After the initial fry, you can freeze them and air fry them later, or continue with the second fry. Bring the oil up to 375 F and fry until they are deeper brown in color and completely crispy, about 2½ minutes.

Once your chicken is fried with your preferred method, add enough of the reserved sauce to coat the chicken. Serve over rice or another starch and garnish with scallions.

Notes

A classic Chinese-American dish that you can find at nearly every Chinese restaurant across America. Crispy battered and fried chicken coated in a sweet and spicy sauce. The recipe listed here is much less sweet than what you’d normally find, and has a more spicy and balanced flavor overall. Feel free to play around with the sauce ingredients to suit your tastes best. I recommend doubling or tripling this recipe, then freezing some for a later date as the recipe describes.