Taste of Home Tuesday: General Tso's Chicken

Justin and I enjoy eating Chinese food every so often.  If we are at a buffet we usually both end up with General Tso's Chicken on our plates.  Justin had the day off and was going to make dinner, he did some searching online and found this recipe.  I was amazed at how close it was to the restaurants sauce.  It was very thick and very tasty!  It made quite a bit so I froze the leftover sauce.  When we pulled it back out to eat over rice I just added a little water and microwaved it until it was back to the consistency we wanted.  This is a great recipe!  Enjoy!!   

Picture by Lavender Lynn



Ingredients

3 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks

2 cups green onions, sliced

8 small dried chilies, seeds removed ( bird pepper or thai chilies are good)

Cornstarch slurry

1/4 cup soy sauce, low sodium preferred

1 eggs, beaten

1 cup cornstarch

Sauce

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh garlic, minced

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup sherry wine or 1/4 cup white wine

14 1/2 ounces chicken broth ( a can)

Directions

Place sauce ingredients in a quart jar with a lid and shake to mix. If you make this ahead of time just refrigerate until needed, shaking it again when you are ready to use it. This also keeps your dirty dishes down.

Mix cornstarch slurry in a large bowl- the mixture will be strange but trust me it works. It will be VERY thick almost paste like. Add chicken pieces to coat. Using a fork remove ONE chicken piece at a time and let the excess mixture drip off. YES even though the mixture has a weird consistency it will not stick like paste and the excess will drip off. Add chicken to the hot (350 degree) oil and fry until crispy. Only cook 7 or 8 chicken pieces at a time. You do not want to lower the temp of the oil by cooking too many at a time. You can use a simple cooking or candy thermometer to judge the temp of the oil.

Drain on paper towels. Keep warm- I just put them in the oven with the oven off. Repeating until all chicken is fried.

In a separate wok or large skillet add a small amount of oil and heat to 400 degrees. Again, a candy thermometer works great. You can fry all the chicken, drain the oil to the desired amount and use the same pan if you like.

Add green onions and hot peppers and stir fry about 30 seconds.

Stir sauce mixture, and then add to pan with onions and peppers, cook until thick. If it gets too thick, add a little water. The thickness of the sauce should be similar to what you get when ordering this at a restaurant.

Add chicken to sauce in wok, and cook until all is hot and bubbly. The quicker this is done the crispier the chicken stays.

Serve over rice.