I think what everyone loves about Asian and Asian-inspired meals is they are so full of flavors. Lots of them. And this General Tso’s Chicken doesn’t disappoint in that regard. General Tso’s Chicken is always a take-out favorite and it’s really not too difficult to make at home.
Sweet, salty, spicy, and sour flavors all join to create a truly delicious meal that rivals the best take-out restaurants. To really round-out your meal, make this Egg Roll Stir-Fry to go with the General Tso’s Chicken.
The sauce is made from chicken broth, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, tomato paste, and hoisin sauce, plus some cornstarch to thicken it up.
You can use either boneless chicken breasts or thighs. I sometimes use a combination. Just keep in mind that dark meat takes a little longer to cook than white meat..
The chicken is coated in a mixture of cornstarch, soy sauce, and eggs.
Once coated, the chicken is deep-fried and then tossed in the sauce.
Garlic and fresh ginger are added for even more flavor, plus hot chiles for some heat. Dried Chile de Arbol can usually be food in the hispanic food section of the grocery store or the produce section or you can order Dried Chile De Arbol
online.
If you want even more heat, I recently discovered this Hot Chili Sesame Oil
and I love it.
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General Tso's Chicken
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
Remaining Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons peanut oil
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into 1 1/4-inch cubes
- Peanut oil
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 10-12 chiles de arbol
- 2 tablespoons Asian sesame oil
- sliced green onions for garnish, optional
Instructions
- Combine ingredients for sauce in a medium bowl and whisk well. Set aside.
- In another medium bowl, whisk together 6 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 3 tablespoons peanut oil, and egg yolks. Stir in chicken and make sure all pieces are fully coated.
- Place about 1-inch of peanut oil in a large pan. Heat oil to 375 degrees. Working in batches, fry chicken for about 4 minutes, flipping over halfway through cooking time. Place on paper towel-lined plate.
- Either discard oil and wipe pan clean with a paper towel of use a clean pan. The oil will be very hot. Proceed with caution if you need to use the same pan.
- Add 1/4 cup of oil to pan. (I use 1/4 cup of the oil used to fry the chicken.) Heat over high heat and add ginger, garlic, and chiles. Stir fry for 30 seconds. Give reserved sauce a stir and pour it into the pan. Cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.
- Add chicken and cook 2 minutes, stirring to coat the chicken in sauce.
- Drizzle sesame oil over chicken.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe adapted from Saveur
More Asian-Style Recipes
Mongolian Beef (PF Chang’s copycat)
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A little to salty for my taste, but it’s easily fixed by adding only 1-2 Tbs of Hoisin sauce first, also I used 3 Tbs of dried crushed chilies and 1 tsp of cayenne pepper to replace the whole chilies.
But still worth the 5 ☆’s, this recipe is a keeper !!!
My family really enjoyed this. Much better than take out.
Ok made this dish and it was good.
Definitely nothing like general tso’s chicken very disappointing the good comments must be from the writers friends cause tgis recipe sucks!
Its not like take out, but i honestly hate take out.. I prefer this one, have used if for a LONG time.. I change a few things, like the batter – I make my own. Plus i use fresh peppers. But this is a really good guideline to follow.
Ashley – perhaps your not that good on kitchen because this came out very very good. I live in NYC and know good Chinese.
Living in nyc doesn’t equate to having taste lol
I love generals chicken but this is the worst generals chicken I have ever had. I will be removing this recipe from my pint rest and find another.
Love this chicken.Definetly will be trying this out in near future.Thanks for sharing
Made this tonite. Followed recipe exactly. Serv d with fried rice and broccoli. Whole family loved it! This one is definitely going into our regular rotation. Thanks for the awesome recipe.
Amanda, we added broccoli to ours as well, even the kids liked it.
I was looking forward to making this recipe so I gathered all the ingredients and made it last night. Unfortunately, this recipe was horrible. My husband will eat most anything but he couldn’t even finish this. And I don’t blame him. Extremely disappointed in this.
I first tried this in nyc and I have since been trying to replicate it, must say it comes close, I really enjoyed it.