Recipe of the Week – General Tso’s Chicken

Ingredients:

Sauce/Chicken Marinade:

3 Tbsp soy sauce – light or all-purpose (NOT dark soy, Note 1)

1 Tbsp hoisin sauce

1 Tbsp rice vinegar (sub white wine vinegar)

2 tsp chili paste, any (Sambal Oelak is great)

1 tsp sesame oil (preferably toasted, Note 6)

3 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp corn flour/cornstarch

¾ cup chicken stock/broth, low sodium

Chicken:

600 g/1.4 lbs. chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, cut into 2.5cm/1” pieces (breast/tenderloin, Note 2)

1 tsp ginger, finely grated

1 tsp garlic, finely grated

1 cup corn flour/cornstarch (Note 5)

1-4 cups oil, for frying (peanut, vegetable or canola, Note 4)

Stir Fry Sauce:

2 Tbsp oil (peanut, vegetable or canola

2 tsp ginger, finely chopped (Note 3)

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (Note 3)

½ tsp red chili flakes (red pepper flakes)

Garnishes (at least 1 recommended)

Finely sliced green onion

Sesame seeds

Instructions:

1. Sauce-Marinade: Mix the soy, hoisin, vinegar, chili and sesame oil.
2. Marinate Chicken: Take out 2 tablespoons of Sauce-Marinade and mix with the chicken. Add ginger and garlic to chicken, mix, then marinate for 30 minutes
3. Dust chicken: Add corn flour into chicken and toss to coat, ensuring pieces are separated so they get fully cooked
4. Shake off excess: Tip into a colander and shake to remove excess corn flour (or grab handfuls, shake so corn flour falls through your fingers).
5. Finish Sauce: To the remaining Sauce-Marinade (that you made in Step 1), add sugar and corn flour. Mix, then add chicken stock and mix.
6. Heat oil: Heat 2 cm / 4/5″ oil in a deep skillet (or large pot – whatever you’re comfortable with) to 200°C/390°F. To use less, see Note 4.
7. Fry: Cook chicken for 3 minutes, turning halfway, until golden and crispy. Drain on paper towel lined plate.
8. New / clean skillet: Discard oil, wipe skillet and return to heat. Or use another large skillet.
9. Stir Fry Sauce: Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, chili flakes, sauté 30 seconds until garlic is light golden. Add Sauce, bring to simmer and stir occasionally until it thickens enough that you can draw a path across pan base.
10. Toss! Add chicken, toss to coat quickly – the quicker you are, the crispier the chicken stays! Transfer to serving plate, garnish and serve immediately with your rice of choice.

1. Soy Sauce -all-purpose or light soy is required here. Either is fine, just don’t use dark soy sauce (labelled as such) – it will overwhelm flavor and make sauce too dark. More on different soy sauces here.
2. Chicken – thigh is best because you can be assured that it will stay juicy inside. Breast is very prone to overcooking and drying out, and especially fraught when deep frying because most people aren’t that experienced with deep or semi-deep frying.
3. Breast & Tenderloin – If you really want to use breast, then tenderize the meat a bit to give yourself a bit of legroom to overcook without it drying out. Add 1/4 tsp baking soda (bi-carb) with the marinade Sauce and marinate for 1 hour or even overnight. This is a dialed back method of Tenderizing Chicken the Chinese Restaurant Way (using less bicarb and marinating for longer so you don’t need to rinse it off).
4. Garlic & Ginger – use a micro plane or other fine grater for the chicken marinade. For stir frying, you must finely chop with a knife. If you use a garlic press or micro plane grater, the garlic and ginger gets too wet and paste-like, so it burns in a flash when stir fried.
5. Amount of oil to use – it’s best to use enough oil so it comes at least halfway up the side of the chicken (from the base of pan) so you only need to turn it once to get nice crispy chicken (i.e.. shallow frying). You could also use more oil – enough so the chicken is bobbing in the oil – which will give a more even crispy coating all around (i.e.. deep frying).
6. Using minimal oil – If you don’t want to fry and want to use as little oil as possible, then just cover the base of the pan with a slick of oil over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken for 3 – 4 minutes in total, turning to crisp up as many sides of the chicken as you can (this is tedious, which is why I shallow fry!)
7. Corn flour for coating – I know 1 cup sounds like a lot for 600g/1.2 lb of chicken. I err on the side of generous here to ensure there is enough to properly coat the chicken all over, using the mixing then shaking off method. You lose a fair amount due to the corn flour clumping from the chicken juices / marinade. You could probably get away with 3/4 cup if you toss well and quickly. Or, if you dip each piece of chicken into corn flour one by one then shook off the excess, you could get away with 1/2 cup.
8. Sesame oil – toasted sesame oil is brown and has more flavor than untoasted (which is yellow).
9. Storage & reheating – This will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. It can be reheated (add a little water if the sauce is too thick), however the chicken will not be crispy.