Kung Pao Chicken Recipe
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 to 1 ¼ Lbs of chicken breast cut into roughly ¾ inch chunks
- 1 Red bell pepper cut into roughly ¾ inch chunks
- 1 ½ Cup of zucchini cut into roughly ¾ inch chunks
- 6 Green onions sliced into 1 inch long sticks
- 3 Cloves of garlic minced
- 1 Tablespoon of fresh ginger minced
- 2 to 4 Dried chilies de arbol broken up and deseeded*
- 10 Sichuan peppercorns whole
- 4 Tablespoons of neutral oil such as vegetable or canola
- 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch
- 1 Tablespoon of dry sherry
- ¼ Teaspoon of salt
- ¼ Teaspoon of ground white pepper
- 1 Cup of unsalted peanuts
For the kung pao sauce:
- 1 ½ Tablespoons of soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon of seasoned rice wine vinegar
- 1 Teaspoon of sugar
- 1 Teaspoon of cornstarch
- 3 Tablespoons of water
Instructions
- Prep and marinate the chicken: Slice chicken into chunks that are roughly ¾ inch in size. Don’t worry if they aren’t perfect, just try to get them as similar in size as possible. Then get out a medium-sized bowl and place the chunks of chicken in it. Add to this bowl the tablespoon of oil, a tablespoon of cornstarch, ¼ teaspoon of salt, Tablespoon of sherry, and the ¼ teaspoon of white pepper. Mix all of this together and let sit for 20 to 30 minutes
- Make the sauce and prep the other ingredients: Get out a small bowl and add all of the kung pao sauce ingredients to it. Mix this up with a fork in order to make the sauce. FYI ***You will most likely need to stir this sauce up real quick before adding it to the dish during step 6, as the corn starch can resettle on the bottom***. After you have made the sauce then it is time to cut and prep all of the veggies and aromatics so that everything is ready to go when you start cooking.
- Cook the chicken: Once the chicken has marinated for 20 to 30 minutes, add 2 tablespoons of oil to your wok, or large skillet and put it over high heat on your stove. It is imperative that when making a stir fry to ensure the wok is very hot, so wait until the oil starts to smoke. Once it has reached that point, add the chicken in two separate batches, and cook them for about 3 to 5 minutes each, until they start to get a nice golden seared color. I know you might be asking yourself, why can’t I cook it all in one batch? Well, trust me that if you attempt to cheat your way out of this, that the chicken will take forever to brown up, by which time it will have become overcooked. After the chicken has been properly cooked, take it out and set it aside on a plate.
- Fry the aromatics: Add another tablespoon of oil to your wok and toss in the garlic, ginger, chilies, and Sichuan peppercorns. Give this all a quick stir, and don’t let it cook by themselves for too long, as you can end up burning some of these aromatics. Basically, give it about 30 seconds to a minute.
- Add the zucchini and bell pepper: Quickly toss in the zucchini and bell pepper, and make sure to stir them in with the aromatics. Let these two veggies cook for a minute or two until then begin to get a little color to them.
- Finish it off: Finally, add back the chicken along with the peanuts and stir fry everything for a minute or two. At the very end add in the sauce and the green onions, stirring it all together until the sauce thickens up and coats everything. This should only take about 30 seconds to a minute.
Notes
*2 chili pepper will create a dish that with a medium spiciness, so if you would like something with a little more oomph I recommend that you use at least 4 chilies