Just saying Kung Pao Chicken makes my mouth water. 🤤 This classic Sichuan dish is super popular for takeout. Moist tender chicken thighs, crunchy peanuts, with a complex mix of salty, sweet, sour, and spicy. But the best of all is that Kung Pao chicken is a simple Chinese recipe you can make at home. If you’re worried about biting into those pesky Sichuan peppercorns, don’t worry, we have a trick to avoid that. 😉
Marinade 1-2 skinless chicken thighs, cut to 1 inch cubes ½ tsp salt White pepper, to taste 2 tsp soy sauce 2 tsp wine ½ tsp dark soy sauce 2 tsp cornstarch
10-15 dried chillies, snipped and deseeded 3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly 1 tsp ginger, minced 5 scallion whites, sliced lengthwise then into ½” (1cm) pieces
½ cup dried peanuts ¼ cup red and/or green Sichuan peppercorn ½ cup oil
Scallion Water 1 tsp ginger 3 scallion greens, cut to 2 inch slices 2 tbsp water
Sauce 1 tbsp wine 1 tbsp soy sauce 2 tsp black vinegar 1 tsp sugar ½ tsp salt ½ tsp dark soy ¼ tsp white pepper
RECIPE
First, let’s make the scallion water. In 2 tablespoons of water add in the ginger and scallions. Working with your hands, squeeze the ginger and scallions into the water.
Marinate the chicken in soy sauce, wine, salt, white pepper, and ginger scallion water (don’t add in the ginger or scallions). Using your hands work the marinade into the chicken until it has absorbed all the liquid. Add in the cornstarch, massage it in and set aside to marinate.
Prepare the sauce for the stir fry. In a bowl mix take a little bit of the ginger, garlic, and scallion that you chopped up from before. Add in wine, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, black vinegar, sugar, salt, and white pepper.
Heat a ½ cup of oil (or just enough oil to cover the peanuts) on low heat in a wok. Add in the peanuts and fry on low heat until bubbles slow down and it turns a light golden brown. Keep watch on these as it can burn easily. Using a strainer remove the peanuts from the oil and set aside to cool.
Using the same oil on low heat add in the sichuan peppercorns. Fry until fragrant. Using a sieve, strain the oil into a bowl. Discard the peppercorns.
Add a tablespoon of the peppercorn oil and dark soy sauce to the chicken and mix in.
Heat a pan or wok over medium high heat. Add a touch of peppercorn oil and fry the chicken in a single layer without moving it until one side is browned. Flip and brown the other side. Remove the chicken.
Heat up your wok over low heat and add in your chillies and fry until it’s fragrant and a little browned. About 1-2 mins. Add in the rest of your scallions, garlic, and ginger and stir fry until fragrant. Add in your chicken then turn up the heat to high. Mix it well then pour in your sauce and stir fry until it has thickened. Add in the peanuts and another tablespoon of peppercorn oil. Stir, plate, and serve immediately.
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Kung Pao Chicken.
It's spicy, it's aromatic, and it's lychee sweet.
And that's a new term for you.
I'm going to show you how to make it.
Let's start by preparing your ingredients.
Slice up your garlic.
Slice the scallions lengthwise, then across into half inch pieces.
Dice up some ginger.
Snip up your dried chilies and remove the seeds, or keep them if you like the heat.
And finally, take a couple of pieces of scallion, add some water, and squeeze it good.
We have our chicken here.
We're using chicken thighs.
You can use breast if you really want to, but the texture is going to be much better
with chicken thighs.
We want to cut them into about this size here.
We're going to get really intimate with our chicken when we marinate it.
We're going with our soy sauce, and you're going to have to work it in.
Then wine.
Massage it in.
I put a little pinch of salt, white pepper, and the most important part of this, the scallion
water we prepared that we squeezed out all the goodness.
So this scallion ginger water is going to give it more flavor, and also the water helps
to keep the chicken moist and tender.
A little bit at a time.
Work it in a little bit more.
And so once all that is worked in and it looks like this, see there's no more water or anything
at the bottom, it's all worked into there.
The next step is to add the cornstarch, and work that in as well.
Okay.
It should look like this.
We're going to let this marinate in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
Few moments later.
Kung Pao because this technique requires kung fu.
No, no, no, no, no.
Kung Pao because martial artists used to eat it.
Kung Pao because it's the bao for quick stir-fry?
What is it then?
Kung Pao chicken in Chinese is Gong Bao Ji Ding.
It was invented by Sichuan Governor Ding Baozhen in the Qing Dynasty.
He is known to love spicy food.
One of his favorites is the stir-fry chicken with chilies and peanuts, which he would often
serve to his guests.
When his guests asked him what's the name of the dish, he would say, sauce fried chicken.
The guests thought it was too boring.
Why don't you call it Gong Bao Ji Ding or Kung Pao Chicken?
But wait a second.
Why isn't it called Ding Baozhen Chicken after the official?
Well, back in the day, government officials are given honorary titles like Tai Bao or
Tai Shi.
Think of things like Lord or Your Honorable or Sir, kind of like that.
Ding Baozhen was given the honorary title of Gong Bao, so people would often address
him as Ding Gong Bao.
So, the chicken is named after him with this honorary title.
We're going to be making our sauce now so we're not rushing over at the stove.
Kung Pao Chicken has a numb, spicy umami with a charred chili, lychee sweetness.
And that lychee sweetness is made through this sauce, which is a little sweet and a
little sour.
So we're going to grab a little bit of our ginger that we minced, some of the garlic,
some of the scallions.
And this is just to start the flavor of the sauce.
To this, we're going to add some white pepper, salt, sugar, we have some dark soy sauce,
light soy sauce, some black vinegar for the sour, and some cooking wine.
Fry your peanuts over low heat with just enough oil to cover them.
You'll need to be patient here and wait for the moisture to evaporate.
You'll see those little tiny bubbles slow down or stop.
This is going to make your peanuts nice and crispy.
When it's a light golden brown, remove them from the oil and set aside.
They'll continue to brown.
Using the same oil, we're going to make the Sichuan peppercorn oil.
We're using red and green Sichuan peppercorns here to just give it a little more depth.
So over low heat, stir fry them until they're fragrant, drain, but keep this oil.
You can discard the peppercorns though.
Because of this step, you will not need to add Sichuan peppercorns after.
You won't have to bite into those annoying little numbing seeds.
Let's get back to that chicken that's been marinating.
Add a little bit of dark soy for some color so it's not so anemic.
Add a tablespoon of the peppercorn oil that was just made.
It's going to give your chicken a little bit more flavor, add aroma, and it's going to
seal it off so it doesn't stick when you cook it.
Mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix,
We're using a carbon steel pan here because we find it cooks the chicken more evenly.
You can definitely use a wok here.
Add some peppercorn oil to the pan, heat it over medium heat until it's shimmering, then
carefully but quickly add the chicken into the pan in a single layer.
Do not move it until it's set.
It should release by itself, take a little peek, and if it's brown enough, flip it.
Remove the chicken once both sides are brown and set it aside.
In your wok, warm up some more peppercorn oil, then add in your dried chilies.
Slowly fry it on low for about one to two minutes until it's slightly charred.
Add in the scallions, ginger, and garlic, stir-fry until fragrant, mix, mix, mix, mix,
mix, mix, mix.
Now it's time to add your chicken.
Add in your pre-mixed sauce and turn up the heat.
When the sauce has thickened, add in your crispy peanuts and another tablespoon of your
peppercorn oil.
Stir, stir, stir, stir, stir, and done.
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