Kung Pao Chicken--the Most popular Chinese dish

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Kung Pao (or Gong Bao) Chicken is a typical traditional Sichuan dish made with diced chicken, peanuts and chili pepper. It was named after a court official Ding Baozhen in the late Qing dynasty (1616-1911). Legend has it that Mr. Ding was a gourmet, relishing “stir-fried diced chicken” in particular. While he served as governor in Shandong and Sichuan, he often treated his guests to this dish. While in Sichuan, where the local people liked hot chilies, Ding improved his favorite dish “stir-fried diced chicken” by adding chili pepper to the ingredients. As a result, the dish with its spicy flavour tastes more delicious. Since Ding was later granted the title Taizi Shaobao, which literally means “protector of the crown prince”, by the imperial court, he was also referred to as Kung Pao, which was short for Taizi Shaobao. In memory of Mr. Ding Baozhen, people named his favorite dish Kung Pao Chicken.

Main ingredients

250g chicken breast, 100g peanuts

Other ingredients

10g dried red chilies, 20g spring onion, 30g ginger, 20g garlic, 5g Sichuan peppercorn, 5g chili powder

Seasoning

150g peanut oil, 10g granulated sugar, 10g sweet wheat-flour sauce (known as Peking duck sauce), 20g soy sauce, 50g rice wine, 10g vinegar, 20g chicken stock, 5g fine salt, 5g gourmet powder (monosodium glutamate), 20g starch, one egg.

Preparation

① Wash the chicken breast until clean, slap it gently with the back of a knife to make the meat soft. Cut it into small cubes, and put them in a bowl. Add the egg white, appropriate amounts of fine salt, soy sauce and starch into the bowl, and stir well.

② Stir-fry the peanuts and peel their skin after they cool off a bit, and cut the dried red chilies into halves. Dissolve the starch into water and stir well.

③ Place appropriate amounts of granulated sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, gourmet powder and chicken stock, dissolved starch and rice wine into a bowl and mix together the sauce ingredients.

Cooking

④ Heat the oil for deep-frying in a wok over big flame; add and stir-fry the diced chicken for one minute. Place the chicken into a strainer and leach out oil.

⑤ Leave a small amount of oil in the wok, add the dried red chilies and stir until the spicy flavour develops. Now place the ginger, garlic, spring onion and sweet wheat flour sauce into the wok and stir-fry for a few seconds. Then add the fried chicken, peanuts and chili powder and stir for another few seconds. Quickly pour the mixed sauce into the wok and stir the ingredients in. Finally, put everything onto a plate, and the dish is ready to serve.

Features

Fresh, tender, spicy, crispy, savoury, oily but not greasy, a little sweet and sour

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It’s attractive. thanks!

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Kung Pao Chicken
Recipe courtesy Wolfgang Puck

Marinade:
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced

In a non-reactive bowl, prepare the marinade. Combine the rice wine, peanut oil, soy sauce, salt and cornstarch. Stir in the chicken pieces and refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes.

Sauce:
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons peanut oil
4 dried red chiles remove stems and cut in halves
1/2-inch piece ginger, peeled, thinly sliced, smashed
1 garlic clove, smashed
1 green onion, white part cut into 1/2 -inch pieces, julienne the green parts
1/4 cup deep-fried peanuts
2 tablespoons chicken stock plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch, mixed together to make slurry (milk-like)

In a small bowl, combine the ingredients for the sauce. Set aside.
Over high heat, in a wok, bring the peanut oil to almost smoking temperature. Stir-fry the chilies, ginger, garlic and white part of the green onions for 30 to 40 seconds, or until the chilies turn dark. Add the chicken and stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes, until golden in color.

Add the sauce and bring to a boil. Add the peanuts. Thicken with the slurry and continue to cook until glossy. Transfer to a serving plate and garnish with julienne green onions.