Kung Pao Chicken
Why I Love This Recipe
Kung Pao Chicken is one of the most popular Szechuan dishes and meant to be very spicy and flavorful. The dish is supposely named after a Ching dynasty official. Some believe he was a crown prince in China who discovered this dish while traveling outside of his province and brought it back to the Imperial Court. Regardless of the history, it is a simple dish to make and the ingredients can be altered as you wish, but generally it has green peppers, onions, chili peppers and either chicken or shrimp as the core ingredients.
Ingredients You'll Need
2 Tbsp rice wine
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
3/4 lb chicken breast, bite-size pieces
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup baby corn, chopped or whole
1/4 cup bamboo shoots, chopped
1/4 cup carrots, thinly sliced
1/4 cup green pepper, chopped
3 Tbsp onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp red chili peppers, whole
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/3 cup cooked peanuts, unsalted
Directions
Marinade chicken pieces in wine, soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar(first 4 ingredients) for at least 30 minutes.
Set aside.
Coat the chicken evenly with cornstarch.
Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok. Add galic,and the chicken to the pan and stir-fry until the chicken is no longer pink in the center(approx. 5 minutes).
Remove the meat from the pan.
Add carrots, babycorn, green pepper, onion, bamboo shoots, and ginger into the pan.
Stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.
Add the chicken back into the vegetable mixture, add the chili peppers and stir for another minute or so.
Mix in the peanuts just before serving to ensure they stay crunchy.
Serve the entire mixture over rice.
Enjoy!