General Tso Chicken Recipe
Pin RecipeThe key to a great General Tso Chicken recipe is of course the sauce.
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
For Chicken Marinade:
- 1 lb chicken (thighs with skin on)
- 2 tablespoon Shao Xing wine
- 2 teaspoon Soy sauce (light)
- 2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon white pepper
For Dry Mix:
- 1 cup cornstarch
- 1 cup flour
- 2 teaspoon salt
For General Tso Sauce:
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon raw honey
- 3 tablespoon rice wine vinegar ( I used Chinese Mijiu or 米酒)
- 2 tablespoon Shao Xing wine (Chinese cooking wine)
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
Cornstarch Slurry:
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoon water
Watch the Video:
Instructions:
Prep Chicken for Marinade:
- Cut the chicken thighs (with skin on) into desired sizes. Mix the marinate ingredients.
- Pour the marinate into the chicken cuts and give them a little massage until well coated. Set aside the chicken or store in the fridge.
Mix the Dry Ingredients:
- Mix the dry ingredients. Take a piece of chicken and coat really well. Make sure that all the chicken pieces are well covered with flour. Shake off the excess batter.
- You don't want too much excess flour because that might change the flavor of the oil. It could be a bit time-consuming but if you spend a bit of extra time to coat the chicken, its all worth it.
- After coating the chicken with flour, set aside for frying.
Prep the Sauce:
- Just mix the sauce ingredients. Mix them well and put aside.
Frying the Chicken:
- Heat the oil up at 375°F. There's a little cool trick when you know your oil is hot enough or is ready to fry. Take a wooden spatula or a wooden chopstick and put it in the hot oil. Once you see the oil starts fizzing near the surface of the wood, it signals that the oil is hot enough.
- Now, you can put the chicken pieces into the hot oil. Don't overcrowd the wok. Let the chicken cook for about 2-3 minutes, move them around so they are not sticking to each other. Take the chicken off the heat and let them drain and dry.
- If you want tastier chicken, it's best to double fry them. Start for the second fry. What we are looking for is to turn the chicken one shade darker and a bit crispy. Then, you can take them out and drain them.
- Mix the sauce ingredients.
- Heat the pan in medium-low heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Put the minced garlic, dried chilies, and the grated ginger. Give them a good stir. It's going to smell really fragrant.
- Turn the heat to medium-high and pour the sauce. Let the little liquid cooks off first and then, you add the cornstarch & water slurry.
- Don't add all the slurry, I just eyeball it (like 2 tbsp) while stirring. You will see the sauce starts to thicken up and that's what we are looking for.
- Once the sauce thickens, we can now add the chicken back in. Turn the heat into low to avoid the sauce evaporates too fast. It may look like the sauce is not enough but it's plenty.
- Keep stirring to get all the chicken all covered. As you can see, the amount of sauce is just perfect.
- Now the chicken pieces are well coated with sauce, turn off the heat and sprinkle the sesame seeds or you can top it off with scallions.
- Plate the chicken and serve on top with Jasmine rice.
Notes:
1.) Make sure to lower the heat so the sauce won't evaporate too fast.
Nutrition Information:
Calories: 461kcal | Carbohydrates: 68g | Protein: 16g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 90mg | Sodium: 2001mg | Potassium: 155mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 141IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 21mg | Iron: 3mg
Please note that all nutrition information are just estimates. Values will vary among brands, so we encourage you to calculate these on your own for most accurate results.
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