Thursday, September 24, 2009

General Tso's Chicken

Long time no post but you all should be getting used to that by now.

Today's recipe is brought to you by my husband Daniel, I helped make the stuff and found the recipe so I do get some credit, but he did the hard work so we will just give it up to him. My husband loves Chinese food, me...not so much. Chinese and I have a love hate relationship. I will crave it and be so excited to get it and then after about three bites I wish I had something else to eat, I do that with Chipotle to. Daniel had been craving some Chinese for the past few weeks and finally last night he put his foot down and decided that after having this recipe along with it's ingredients on hand for the last month that it was about time we actually cooked it. I was just fine with that because after all, it was my birthday and it was only fair he cook dinner for me. I actually really enjoyed this dish up until I got a bite of the pepper and that set my taste buds on fire. I think next time because I am a wimp like that, that I will have him leave the peppers out for my portion of the dish. On a side note those peppers cleared up my sinus' and I slept like a baby last night so maybe I should just deal with it. Anyway here you go, you must try this at home sometime!
General Tso's Chicken~
Compliments of recipezaar.com, Recipe #164706

Ingredients:

3 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
2 cups green onions, sliced
8 small dried chilies, seeds removed (bird pepper or thai chilies are good)
2 cups white rice, cooked as directed

Cornstarch slurry:
1/4 cup soy sauce, low sodium preferred
1 egg, beaten
1 cup cornstarch

Sauce:
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh garlic, minced
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup sherry wine or white wine
14 1/2 ounces chicken broth

Directions:

1. Place sauce ingredients in a quart jar with a lid and shake to mix. If you make this ahead of time just refrigerate until needed, shaking it again when you are ready to use it. This also keeps your dirty dishes down.

2. Mix cornstarch slurry in a large bowl- the mixture will be strange but trust me it works. It will be VERY thick almost paste like. Add chicken pieces to coat. Using a fork remove ONE chicken piece at a time and let the excess mixture drip off. YES even though the mixture has a weird consistency it will not stick like paste and the excess will drip off. Add chicken to the hot (350 degree) oil and fry until crispy. Only cook 7 or 8 chicken pieces at a time. You do not want to raise the temp of the oil by cooking too many at a time. You can use a simple cooking or candy thermometer to judge the temp of the oil.

3. Drain on paper towels. Keep warm- I just put them in the oven with the oven off. Repeating until all chicken is fried.

4. In a separate wok or large skillet add a small amount of oil and heat to 400 degrees. Again, a candy thermometer works great. You can fry all the chicken, drain the oil to the desired amount and use the same pan if you like.

5. Add green onions and hot peppers and stir fry about 30 seconds.

6. Stir sauce mixture, and then add to pan with onions and peppers, cook until thick. If it gets too thick, add a little water. The thickness of the sauce should be similar to what you get when ordering this at a restaurant.

7. Add chicken to sauce in wok, and cook until all is hot and bubbly. The quicker this is done the crispier the chicken stays.

8. Serve over rice.

Like I said this dish was really good, the fact that I enjoyed it speaks loudly. Some suggestions that were posted by others was to do all of the prep work the night before which would help cut back some time when you make this during the evenings. We are definitely going to do that one when we make this again which we will be. When my Dad found out we were making Chinese for dinner he requested the recipe before we even knew it would be edible. Here you go Dad, here's the recipe...LOL.

On a totally separate note some of you may have noticed that September 15th has come and gone. I was totally supposed to pick a winner for the giveaway I was holding and failed to do so. Since I didn't get the response I was looking for I am going to extend the giveaway until Saturday the 26th at twelve o'clock p.m., that's noon just in case you didn't know. I will randomly select the winner from a hat and notify you right away so that I can get your mailing address.

4 comments:

Cassie said...

Yum, that looks delicious! It's Joe's favorite dish to order at a Chinese restaurant, so I'm definitely going to make it for him sometime. Thanks for sharing!

Unknown said...

Katie! I've missed you! How are you feeling? And a happy belated birthday to boot!

My husband would enjoy this recipe...the more peppers the better.

ChristineM said...

I'm not a big Chinese fan either, except for General Tso's Chicken and Crab Rangoon! Looks yummy!

Nice to see you posting again! Hope all is well!

Katie said...

Thank you ladies, I am feeling pretty good. The morning sickness has finally started to fade away though I still have my moments. The biggest problem now is the round ligament pain from all of this stretching and my body adjusting to accomodate this little one. Yesterday we hit the 20 week marker so we are half way through. Still waiting on the big ultrasound but hopefully at my appointment tomorrow we will get it scheduled then. We can't wait to find out whether it's a little girl or a little boy. Hope everyone is doing good, I love hearing from each of you even though I am a horrible blogger and don't deserve you as followers.