Kung Pao Chicken: A Taste of China

You can enjoy this favourite restaurant dish at home. Chinese Kung Pao Chicken is quick and easy to make - a real treat for a weeknight dinner. Spicy, tangy, salty, and slightly sweet, it packs an umami punch of flavour. Dine in and treat yourself tonight! (Skip to recipe.)

This month for our Eat the World recipe challenge, we head to the vast country of China. The classic cuisine from this diverse land has become well-known and beloved around the world. Who hasn't enjoyed a Chinese meal in a restaurant at a table laden with platters heaped with rainbow-coloured flavourful food? Most of these dishes seem complex and complicated, too difficult to replicate at home. But with just a few tips and tricks, you can enjoy a taste of China at your own dinner table.

Kung Pao Chicken - Loaded with Flavour

One of these restaurant favourites is Kung Pao Chicken (also known as Kung Po or Gong Bao). Extremely popular, it is an authentic Chinese dish with origins in the Sichuan province in southwest China. It is named after a Qing Dynasty official who was also the governor of Sichuan in the 1800s. What makes this dish so special is its explosion of flavour - spicy, salty, a bit sweet, and buzzing with the brightness of Sichuan peppercorns and spicy chilis. It's a simple dish really, a dry-fry (not much sauce) with quick-marinated chicken, a few veggies, crunchy peanuts. It comes together in under 30 minutes and provides a plateful loaded with flavour - almost quicker than the time you'd need to order take-out.

Dinner on the Table in Short Order

Dice up the chicken breasts or thighs, then marinate them with baking soda, cornstarch (to make a crunchy coating that seals in moisture), Chinese wine and soy sauce or tamari (for flavour). The baking soda is a Chinese restaurant trick to help the meat stay incredibly juicy and tender, and also helps it brown more quickly and evenly when stir-frying. (The soda makes the surface of the meat alkaline, which prevents the proteins from forming bonds, keeping the meat more tender. A totally cool bit of food science geekery.)

While the chicken is marinating, set on a pot of rice to cook, stir together the sauce, and chop up your other ingredients so you're ready to finish off the dish in minutes. Then do a quick browning of the chicken bits.

Now stir-fry the veggies, add the sauce, return the chicken to the pan, and cook it all quickly.

Toss in a handful of crunchy peanuts, and your amazing Kung Pao Chicken is ready to serve.

Smell that wonderful aroma!

And there you have it - a dish of incredibly moist and tender chicken chunks napped in a seriously flavourful sauce to top a bowl of fluffy rice. A heap of glistening Kung Pao Chicken has the colours of an artist's palate, with a POW of umami spicy deliciousness to match its stunning looks. Who needs takeout when you can quickly whip up a taste of China and serve it in the comfort of your own home?

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Kitchen Frau Notes: You can use chicken breast or boneless chicken thighs for this recipe. Add other vegetables if you wish - diced zucchini, carrots, celery, etc.

Sichuan peppercorns are the trademark of Kung Pao chicken - they're not really hot-spicy, but rather provide a pleasant tingling to the mouth. If you don't have them, replace them with a ½ teaspoon of white pepper.

Kung Pao Chicken

for the chicken:

• 1½ lbs (700gms) boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon Chinese shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or tamari for gluten free)

for the sauce:

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Chinese black rice vinegar (or balsamic vinegar)
• 2 tablespoons Chinese shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce (or tamari for gluten free)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1½ teaspoons Sichuan pepper, crushed or ground
• ½ to 1 teaspoon dried red chili flakes (use only ¼ teaspoon if you like it very mild, or more than 1 teaspoon if you like it fiery hot)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

for the stir fry:

• 3 tablespoons oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper
• 4 to 5 green onions/scallions/spring onions
• ½ cup roasted, unsalted peanuts (or cashews)
• cooked white or brown rice to serve

Cut the chicken into 1-inch (2.5cm) cubes and put it into a bowl. Sprinkle the baking soda overtop and toss the chicken well to distribute the baking soda evenly throughout (this will help with keeping the chicken moist and helping it brown quickly). Leave it to sit for 5 minutes. Then add the cornstarch and stir to coat all the chicken pieces. Lastly, add the shaoxing wine and soy sauce and stir again to distribute it evenly throughout. Leave to marinate for 10 minutes.

While the chicken is marinating, stir together the sauce ingredients and set them aside. (You can crush the Sichuan pepper in a mortar and pestle, or put it into a plastic bag and lay it on a cutting board, then crush it with a cast iron skillet, rolling pin, or the smooth side of a meat mallet, or grind it in an electric spice grinder or coffee grinder.)

Prepare all the ingredients for the stir fry, as once you get cooking things go quickly and you'll need everything ready: mince the ginger and the garlic. seed and dice the red pepper into 1-inch (2.5cm) squares, trim the green onions and cut them into 1-inch lengths (separate the white parts from the green parts).

Make the stir fry: Put 1 tablespoon of the oil into a large (12-inch/30cm) skillet on medium-high heat, and heat it to shimmering. Add half the marinated chicken pieces and fry them until a deep golden brown on both sides, separating the pieces often to keep them from sticking together. This will take about 2 minutes on one side, then flip all the pieces and fry for another 2 minutes on the other side, or until cooked through. Remove the chicken to a bowl. Add another tablespoon of oil, and repeat with the remaining chicken pieces.

Add the third tablespoon of oil to the skillet and add the minced ginger and garlic. Stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the red bell pepper  and the white parts of the green onions and stir fry for 2 minutes. Return the browned chicken to the pan and pour in the sauce. Cook and stir until the sauce is bubbling and slightly thickened and the chicken is heated through.

Add the peanuts and the green top parts of the green onions and cook for 1 more minute.

Serve hot with cooked rice.

Serves 4.

Guten Appetit!

Check out all the wonderful Chinese dishes prepared by fellow Eat the World members and share with #eattheworld. Click here to find out how to join and have fun exploring a country a month in the kitchen with us!

Culinary Adventures with Camilla: Scallion Pancakes
Pandemonium Noshery: See Ji Tan - Chinese Lion’s Head Meatballs
Amy’s Cooking Adventures: Homemade Fortune Cookies
CulturEatz: Easy Spicy Vegan Mapo Tofu
Magical Ingredients: Biang Biang Noodles
Kitchen Frau: Kung Pao Chicken
Sneha’s Recipe: Quick Pork Fried Rice
Making Miracles Zucchini Stir Fry
Sugarlovespices: Authentic Sichuan Mapo Tofu Recipe
A Day in the Life on the Farm: Lettuce Wraps

 

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Check out my past ‘Eat the World’ Recipe Challenge posts:

(in alphabetical order)

• Argentina: Red Chimichurri Sauce
• Bangladesh: Chingri Masala (Shrimp Curry)
• Bulgaria: Patatnik (Savoury Potato and Cheese Pie)
• Cambodia: Noum Kong (Cambodian Rice Flour Doughnuts)
• Colombia: Pan de Yuca (Warm Cheese Buns)
• Egypt: Fava Beans and Feta
• England: Gluten Free Fish and Chips and Mushy Peas
• Ethiopia: Four Ethiopian Recipes for a Fantastic Feast
• Fiji: Spiced Sweet Potato and Banana Salad
• Finland: Lohikeitto (Creamy Salmon, Potato, and Dill Soup)
• France: Axoa d’Espelette (A Simple Stew from the Basque Country)
• Georgia: Charkhlis Chogi (Beets with Sour Cherry Sauce)
• Hungary: Túrós Csusza (Pasta Scraps with Cottage Cheese)
• India: Kerala Upma (Fluffy, Kerala Style Breakfast Upma Recipe)
• Iraq: Tepsi Baytinijan (Eggplant & Meatball Casserole)
• Ireland: Dublin Coddle (A tasty Sausage and Potato Stew)
• Israel: Cucumber, Feta, and Watermelon Salad
• Jamaica: Rice and Peas (Coconut Rice and Red Beans)
• Kenya: Maharagwe with Ugali (Red Beans with Cornmeal Slice)
• Laos: Ping Gai (Lao Grilled Chicken Wings)
• Luxembourg: Stäerzelen (Buckwheat Dumplings)
• Mexico: Cochinita Pibil Tacos (Pit Barbecued Pig to Make in Your Oven)
• Netherlands: Boerenkool Stamppot (Kale-Potato Mash with Sausages & Pears)
• New Zealand: Classic Pavlova
• Poland: Polish Honey Cake
• Portugal: Tuna and Sardine Pâtés
• Puerto Rico: Piña Colada Cocktail
• Senegal: Mafé (Beef and Peanut Stew)
• Sudan: Peanut Butter Creamed Spinach & Peanut Meringue Cookies
• Sweden: Swedish Meatballs with Cream Gravy
• Switzerland (Christmas): Basler Leckerli Cookies
• Thailand: Shrimp Laksa (Khung)
• Trinidad & Tobago: Peanut Butter Prunes
• Ukraine: Buckwheat Kasha with Beef
• United States (Soul Food): Smothered Pork Chops
• Uruguay: Torta de Fiambre (Baked Ham & Cheese Sandwiches)
• Vietnam: Caramelized Pork Rice Bowls