Kung Pao Chicken 宫保鸡
Kung Pao Chicken is a classic stir fry chicken dish. Fried with dried chilli and cashew nuts, this is a perfect combo of tangy, sweet, savoury and spicy.
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Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 300 grams boneless and skinless chicken meat, chicken breast or chicken thigh meat, cut into small chunks
- 8 dried chillies, soaked, seeded and cut into pieces
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 5 slices ginger
- 2 spring onion , white part (diced), green part (3 cm length)
- 50 gram cashew nuts, toasted
- 3 tbsp cooking oil
Marinade for Chicken Meat:
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 egg white
- ¼ tsp ground white pepper
- ½ tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 1 tbsp water
Ingredients for Sauce:
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp black vinegar
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
- 1 tsp cornflour
- 2 tbsp water
Have ready all ingredients needed.
Cut the chicken meat into small cubes and prepare ingredients to marinate the meat.
Place chicken cubes in a bowl and mix in all marinade ingredients and marinade for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, cut garlic cloves and ginger into thin slices. Cut the top part of spring onion into bite size and green part of spring onion into 3cm in length.
Soak dried chillies, drained, deseed and cut into 2 cm pieces.
In another bowl, add in all the ingredients for the kung pao sauce. Whisk eveything till well mix and set aside for later use.
First, stir fry cashew nuts in a hot wok for about 3 minutes to toast the nuts till golden brown and fragrant. Then set aside.
Heat up a wok with 1 tablespoon of oil and stir-fry the marinated chicken until the meat turns white, about 80% cook. Dish out and set aside.
Reheat wok and add in the balance 2 tbsp oil. Add in ginger, garlic slices and white part of spring onions and give it a quick stir. Then add in dried chillies. Stir fry the dried chillies till aromatic, smells spicy and turns a darker red colour.
Next, add in the sauted chicken meat. Stir fry briefly before adding in the toasted cashew nuts. Then add the sauce and bring it to a boil. Stir continuously until the chicken mixture is evenly coated and the sauce has thickened. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
Lastly toss in the green spring onion, stir to combine well with the chicken cubes and dish out to serve.
Serve immediately with steamed white rice and Enjoy!
Instructions
Prepare Ingredients:
Cooking Kung Pao Chicken:
Enjoy!
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Recipe Video
Notes
- Use chicken breast or chicken thigh for this dish. Marinade to tenderise the chicken meat so it is super tender and juicy.
- The spiciness of dried chillies differs for different types. So adjust this to taste. Cut off a tiny bit of the chilli and check how hot it is, then decide how many to use. Use around 6 to 8 dried chillies that are around 6 - 7cm/ 2.5" long, deseeded.
- If you really can't handle any chilli at all, use the dried chilies when cooking the dish but do not consume them. The dried chillies add flavour to to the sauce so do not omit them.
- Chinese black vinegar gives the dish an authentic sour taste. It is available in most Asian stores. If not available, substitute with rice wine vinegar, plain white vinegar or good quality balsamic vinegar.
- Cook the Kung Pao sauce till it reduces to a syrupy consistency with quite an intense flavour.