Kung Pao chicken got its name from the dried hot pepper. Kung Pao is the governmental title of Ding Baozhen, the person who invented the dried hot pepper. Too bad we didn’t have people with a higher title to invent the dried hot pepper. Wouldn’t it be awesome if it’s called “Emperor chicken”?
Kung Pao later became a style of cooking or a flavor of a dish. Therefore, it’s 100% legitimate to make Kung Pao calamari, Kung Pao beef, etc. Like many other Chinese dishes, out of all the Kung Pao dishes, only Kung Pao chicken made this far to reach America, or far more famous than all its Kung Pao siblings!
Since Kung Pao was actually a flavor, I encourage you to try out your new “Kung Pao” technique on all other kind of protein, or even veggies! Let’s wait no further and jump right to this recipe!
Chicken Ingredients
- 1 lb of chicken
- 2 tbsp of beaten egg
- 1 tbsp of corn starch
- 1 tbsp of soy sauce
Stir Fry Sauce Ingredients
- 1 tsp of ketchup
- 1 tbsp of corn starch
- 1 tsp of sugar
- 2 tbsp of water
- 1 tbsp of soy sauce
Other ingredients
- 1 tbsp of Chinese pepper (a.k.a Sichuan pepper or prickly ash)
- ¼ cup of dried hot pepper
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 green onions
- 2 tbsp of peanuts
- 1 tbsp of rice wine
- 1 tbsp of vinegar
Cube the chicken
Once the chicken is prepared, Add beaten egg, cornstarch, and soy sauce to the chicken, and marinate for 15 min. Use this time to prepare the rest of the dish!
The first step, fry the peanuts!
If you followed itsmydish long enough, you know we used dry nuts once in awhile, most of the time I would recommend you to just buy it from store. This time, let’s try to fry our own peanuts!
One of the most important tips for you on frying peanuts is this: after you remove it from the oil, the residual heat will continue to fry the peanuts further.
After you fried the peanuts, make sure you remove them while they still look pale! After you drain the oil, see how the color slowly darkens. In the beginning, they are softer while hot. The heat will continue to roast the peanut further while cooling down. It’s very interesting to watch! Set it aside and let it cool down on its own. Time to prep the chicken!
Take a another bowl, mix ketchup, cornstarch, water, soy sauce and sugar evenly, set aside for later use. We cheated a little bit by using ketchup. Ketchup will enrich the color and also add the sweet-sour taste that is needed to this dish. Pro Tip: Once you start stir frying, everything has to be done fast, therefore you want to have all sauce mixed well before you start cooking!
Now it’s time to fry the chicken. Here is my tip to share with you: Instead of taking a bulky deep fry pot, just use a deeper sauté pan and add about ½ inch of oil. Once your ingredient is fried, drain it and use the oil to cook other dishes. If you are going to cook dinner for about 3 to 4 ppl, you can add one fry dish and use the rest of the oil for the rest of the dishes. Deep fry the chicken at 300° F for 30 seconds.
Drain it
Cut green onions and smash the garlic.
Add 3 tbsp of oil, slowly fry the Chinese pepper with low heat. The reason of low heat is that the Chinese pepper is dry and can easily burn. Therefore, you want to heat up slowly so the aroma of Chinese pepper has enough time to be released into the oil. Remove the Chinese pepper before it turns completely black. We DO NOT want the Chinese pepper in the dish. Even though the aroma is so awesome, but its texture might not be so pleasant to your mouth.
Add green onions, garlic and dried hot pepper, stir fry at high heat for 1 min. You should see your dried hot chili puff up with heat. That means it’s ready.
Add chicken, stir fry at high heat for 1 min
Add the mixed sauce, stir fry at high heat until it’s mixed well with chicken. Your sauce should have thicken with the starch in it.
Before removing from heat, add peanuts, add a tsp of vinegar, and mix well.
Ready
- 1 lb of chicken
- 2 tbsp of beaten egg
- 1 tbsp of corn starch
- 1 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 tsp of ketchup
- 1 tbsp of corn starch
- 1 tsp of sugar
- 2 tbsp of water
- 1 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of Chinese pepper
- ¼ cup of dried hot pepper
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 green onions
- 2 tbsp of peanuts
- 1 tbsp of rice wine
- 1 tbsp of vinegar
- Cube the chicken
- Add egg mix, cornstarch and soy sauce to the chicken, marinate for 15 min
- Mix ketchup, cornstarch and sugar, set aside for later use.
- Deep fry the chicken at 300F for 30 sec. Set aside for later use.
- prepare cutted green onions, smashed garlic
- Add 3 tbsp of oil, slowly fry the Chinese pepper
- Remove the Chinese pepper before it turn completely black
- Add green onions, garlic and dry hot pepper, stir fry at high heat for 1 min
- Add chicken, stir fry at high heat for 1 min
- Add the mixed sauce, stir fry at high heat until it’s mixed well with chicken
- Before removing from heat, add peanuts, add a tsp of vinegar, mix well.
- Ready
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