How to Cook General Tso’s Chicken
Serves: 8
Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Ingredients needed to make General Tso’s Chicken:
For the chicken:
- 3 lb boneless chicken breasts, skinned and chopped into bite-sized chunks
- 8 small dried chilies, deseeded
- 2 cups green onions, sliced
- Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
For the cornstarch slurry:
- 1 cup cornstarch
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
For the sauce:
- ¼ cup sherry wine
- ¼ cup white vinegar
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup cornstarch
- One can (14 ½ oz) low-sodium chicken broth
- ½ cup soy sauce
- 1 ½ tsp fresh garlic, minced
Cooking instructions for General Tso’s Chicken:
- Dump all the ingredients for sauce in a 1-quart jar and place a tight-fitting lid on top to secure.
- Give it a nice shake until well mixed and leave it in the fridge until necessary.
- Place the cornstarch in a large bowl and stir in the soy sauce gradually until all of it is used up to form a smooth, thick, paste.
- Beat in the beaten egg until well combined and set aside.
- Pour oil in a deep-bottomed skillet until it stands an inch from the base and heat it to 350 degrees F.
- Lower the chicken into the slurry, few at a time and flip them over to coat well.
- Allow the excess slurry to drip off and dip them into the hot oil, about 7-8 pieces at a time.
- Fry them until they turn crispy golden and drain them with the help of a slotted spoon, into piled up layers of kitchen papers; keep warm until all the chicken chunks are fried.
- Drizzle a lashing of oil in a separate, clean wok and heat it over moderately high flame to 400 degrees as indicated by a candy thermometer.
- Throw in the green onions as well as chilies and sauté briskly for half a minute while stirring it continuously.
- Remove the sauce mixture from the fridge and give it a nice shake before drizzling it ovr the stir-fried mixture.
- Stir them all together to coat well and cook for a couple of minutes or until they thicken.
- Add a splash of water in case the sauce tends to dry up.
- Drop the fried chicken into the simmering sauce and stir them all together until well coated with the blend.
- Cook further for another couple of minutes or until the sauce turns bubbly yet the fried chicken don’t become soggy yet.
- Serve hot over steamed white rice.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
