![]() The name Kung Pao comes from a court official Ding Baozhen in the Qing dynasty. The hero official Ding is a foodie who especially loves stir-fried diced chicken. There are several versions, the real and authentic Sichuan version, or popular Chinese northern version in which cucumber or other vegetables are added, and the westernized version where fresh peppers are added. Kung Pao Chicken originates from the Sichuan Province in China, with bold flavors that are distinctively spicy, pungent, and numbing. This dish is a popular Sichuan food and has become one of the signature dishes in Chinese cuisine along with the popular map tofu, dan dan noodles, etc. The tender taste of the chicken matches great with the crispy peanuts with a combined sweet, sour, and spicy taste. Don’t forget the recipe video below! I think it’s especially useful to see the consistency of the sauce at the end – it should be thick and syrupy, and intense dark brown colour.Kung Pao Chicken (宫保鸡丁) in Chinese is a stir-fried dish with chicken cubes, dried chili pepper, and crispy peanuts. Phew! I don’t usually end up writing so much stuff about ingredients in a post! So I’m signing off here and handing over the recipe. Key Tip: Cook the Kung Pao sauce down until it reduces to a syrupy consistency with quite an intense flavour. So make sure you have all ingredients prepared and ready to toss in. I’ve made Kung Pao Sauce so many times and tried it with each of these, and it’s actually quite similar.Īs with most stir fries, once you start cooking, things move quickly! It takes about 6 minutes to cook. If you can’t find it, don’t worry, you can use rice wine vinegar, plain white vinegar or even balsamic vinegar. Be sure not to get Taiwanese or another Asian black vinegar (some taste completely different), make sure you get Chinese black vinegar (read the label!). Available in Asian stores and costs only a couple of dollars for a big bottle. Looks like balsamic vinegar and, surprisingly, tastes vaguely like it. ![]() Cornstarch / cornflour – to thicken the sauce.It’s glossy and thickened with cornstarch / cornflour, and because it has such a strong flavour, this stir fry has less sauce than other Chinese favourites like Cashew Chicken and Beef and Broccoli. Kung Pao sauce has a strong flavour that is sweet, sour, savoury and with the signature tingle of heat from Sichuan pepper. If you really don’t think you can handle any chilli at all, use them when cooking but don’t eat them. The chillies add flavour to to sauce so don’t skip them. Not all dried chillies are created equal and in fact, the same type of chillies can vary in spiciness throughout the year. So for dried chillies, always taste them and make a judgement call on how much you can handle! Most of the heat is in the seeds which are removed. In contrast, if you grind your own, there tends to be little gritty bits in it – albeit the flavour is a bit better.īest substitute for Sichuan pepper is white pepper. I used to use whole peppercorns but nowadays I tend to use pre ground both for the convenience and also because it’s finely ground. This is the ingredient in Kung Pao sauce that makes it Kung Pao and not just any type of stir fry sauce. I describe it as a little bit lemony with a numbing spiciness, rather than hot spiciness like almost every other chilli. It’s super simple, see directions here: How to Velvet Chicken. If I make this with chicken breast, I always tenderise it using a Chinese restaurant technique using baking soda (bi-carb). I like to use chicken thigh because it’s juicier than breast and tenderloin. The ingredients I describe in a little more detail below are: I’ve provided substitutes for the Chinese cooking wine in the recipe. Most of these ingredients are pretty mainstream Asian cooking ingredients. When it mixes in with the rice, just a bit of sauce goes a long way. Which means, unlike 99% of other Asian stir fries on my site like Chop Suey and Cashew Chicken, it’s not swimming in loads of sauce.īut with Kung Pao Chicken, the sauce is very intense flavoured so you don’t need loads of it. Traditionally in China, Kung Pao Chicken is a dry stir fry. If you’re wondering whether Kung Pao Chicken is authentic Chinese, the dish as we know it outside of China is a slightly westernised version of an authentic Chinese Sichuan dish. Kung Pao Chicken is a Chinese takeout favourite that is mouthwateringly good and highly addictive – so it’s a good thing it’s easy to make at home so we don’t need to order takeout every time we crave it!! We love the strong flavoured sweet-sour-savoury sauce with the signature tingle of numbing heat from the Sichuan pepper! It’s an explosion of big, BIG flavours – and it’s a really quick and easy recipe. Take out style Kung Pao Chicken with marinated chicken, the signature sweet-sour-salty Kung Pao sauce with the addictive tingling heat from sichuan pepper.
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