Kung Pao Chicken

If you love Chinese takeout food, you’ve got to try my homemade Kung Pao Chicken recipe.

Ingredients and Marinade

Into a medium bowl I’m adding a third of a cup of water, a tablespoon of Shaoxing (or you could also use rice cooking wine or even a dry white wine), one tablespoon of corn starch (it’s going to help crisp it up a little bit), and one and a half tablespoons of soy sauce. We’re going to whisk this together and set aside.

Preparing the Chicken

It’s time to cut the chicken: two breasts of chicken (you could also use dark meat if you like). I’m going to cut this up into bite-sized pieces; it’s really up to you. I like smaller pieces in this. By the way, this recipe doubles up really easily; I make this all the time for my family because Brian loves this recipe.

Aromatics and Vegetables

Get that garlic out. Now for the chopping: I have six cloves of garlic in this recipe. Normally if you read a recipe, double, triple, quadruple the garlic, but I think six cloves is a good amount. We’re going to give these a good smash—helps to release the oils and also release the skin—smash, smash, smash (flat side of your knife), and now we’re going to mince it up. Don’t worry about it being super fine; you can have larger pieces in there if you want.

I want to show you how to peel ginger: just in case you don’t, use a spoon and just scrape the edge off—it’s really easy. The papery skin comes off right away. Ginger can be a bit intimidating just because of all the nubs and nooks and crannies, but it’s really just super easy. Now we have this delicious, very fragrant ginger root; we’re gonna mince this up (again, small-ish pieces; it doesn’t have to be perfect).

We just have a bell pepper: open it up, de-seed it, and then we’re going to cut it into roughly rough, big-dice pieces. You can use whatever color you want. Take the ribs out, take the seeds out, and we’re just going to chop this into pieces. The very last thing we have are these dried chilies. They look super pretty in here, but they also add heat. If your family is a little bit heat-adverse, just don’t cut as many in half; you can leave them in whole, take them out afterwards, and they infuse just a little bit of heat.

Sauce

All we have to do is make our sauce and have it ready. Get a big bowl out or even a mixing cup. For the sauce I’m going to add a third of a cup of water, one teaspoon of cornstarch (it’ll help thicken it up), a tablespoon of our rice wine (be a little bit generous with that if you want), two teaspoons of hoisin sauce (this is gonna add a ton of flavor), two tablespoons of sugar (it’ll add just the right amount of sweetness), and one third of a cup of soy sauce (I’m using low-sodium). Let’s give that a mix.

Cooking

Get a big skillet out and set it over medium-high heat. Add in about a tablespoon of oil; get it nice and hot—you want to see it dancing on the surface before you add the chicken. You’re probably going to cook the chicken in a couple different batches depending on how big your pan is, so judge accordingly. Add half of the chicken in; give it a little room so the chicken can breathe. Let that sizzle away for a couple of minutes before we flip the chicken over, then set it aside into a clean bowl. You may need to add a little bit more oil.

Add a couple more tablespoons of oil to your hot pan. We’re going to add our peppers in now; these just need to soften up really quickly. While they’re softening up we’re going to add our chilies in. Cook these for one to two minutes until you notice the color changes slightly and they’ve begun softening; you do not want them to be smushy. Add in the garlic and ginger; cook this up really quickly—do not burn your garlic. Wait for the fragrance to hit you, then it’s time to add the sauce.

Add in about three quarters of a cup of roasted peanuts (I like to add extra). Give the sauce one final stir because the cornstarch settles, and pour it right in. Let it boil; it’ll thicken up slightly, then add the chicken back in. If you want it saucier, just add an extra third of a cup of water. Once the sauce has thickened, dump the chicken back in and mix so the chicken is perfectly coated. Toss in the green onions, mix them up, take the heat off, and serve with rice and your favorite veggies.