General Tso’s Chicken

Every time I eat Chinese, I order General Tso’s Chicken and an egg roll. This tasty treat is so good that I cannot help but overindulge and make myself miserable every time I eat it. I liked it so much that I decided to cook it at home. I love the internet because you can find anything and low and behold, the recipe is there in several variations.

Now this is supposedly an American dish. It did not come over from China but was invented in a New York restaurant when the Chinese craze started in the 1970’s. It was a combination of both of the big Chinese cooking styles, Szechuan and Hunan, and pretty cheap to make. The recipe calls for the meat from legs and thighs which are not high on most people’s foods to eat. I add some red food coloring to the sauce to give it more of the red color you get in restaurants. But when you put it all together, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. And as we all know, “parts is parts.”

The recipe I use is listed below.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoon minced ginger root
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup cooking wine
1 1/2 cup hot chicken broth
1 teaspoon monosodium glutamate (optional)
Meat:

3 pounds deboned dark chicken meat, cut into large chunks
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 egg
1 cup cornstarch
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
2 cups sliced green onions
16 small dried hot peppers

Directions:
Mix 1/2 cup cornstarch with water. Add garlic, ginger, sugar, 1/2 cup soy sauce, vinegar, wine, chicken broth and MSG (if desired). Stir until sugar dissolves. Refrigerate until needed. In separate bowl, mix chicken, 1/4 cup soy sauce and white pepper. Stir in egg. Add 1 cup cornstarch and mix until chicken pieces are coated evenly. Add cup of vegetable oil to help separate chicken pieces. Divide chicken into small quantities and deep-fry at 350 degrees until crispy. Drain on paper towels. Place a small amount of oil in wok and heat until wok is hot. Add onions and peppers and stir-fry briefly. Stir sauce and add to wok. Place chicken in sauce and cook until sauce thickens.

You can alter the recipe to taste. Use white meat instead of dark, skip the hot peppers, use brown rice, or any other alteration to suit your own taste. But enjoy, its finger lickin good.

Icool

Cobb