General Tso's Chicken

Since my husband and I were lucky enough to have the evening together and we just went out to dinner a few days ago, we decided to cook something homemade we haven't tried yet.  After looking over some recipes we opted for General Tso's Chicken, since this is a favorite of ours when we order from a local Chinese restaurant.  Actually, I consider my husband somewhat addicted to the General Tso's sauce we tend to keep stocked in our fridge.  He even eats it with crackers just because he says he enjoys the flavor so much!  To make the chicken, we followed this recipe, less the vegetables since we did not have them on hand.  There is a recipe for on the General Tso's sauce, however since we already had some we decided to use a store bought kind.  Making it fresh will be for next time.  I can't take credit for cooking this one though, my husband did an awesome job and made something I've never attempted before.  If I'm not careful, pretty soon I may have to change my blog's name.

We started out by cubing the chicken and preparing the cornstarch slurry.  Working with the mixture was really weird - it's very thick but once you get the chicken in, it stays coated and fries well. I found it easiest to set the chicken on the mixture then spoon the cornstarch over it.  It was so thick that trying to just dip the chicken in wasn't working.

After coating the chicken, I placed the pieces on a plate to get ready for frying.

I pre-heated the oil on my induction cooktop and got ready to cook the chicken.  The original recipe did recommend frying a maximum of about 8 pieces at a time to avoid lowering the oil heat temperature, but we cooked them all at once and they came out good and crispy.  

 After a few minutes of frying, the chicken was a golden brown color and was ready to serve.

We served the finished chicken over white rice with General Tso's sauce on top.

All I can say is, "WOW!"  It came out way better than I even expected.  The chicken was perfectly crispy and the breading was amazing.  I never realized the difference in cooking between different flours and cornstarch, but all this practice is teaching me so much.  Now I can't wait to try all kinds of Asian recipes.

General Tso's Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, cut into small cubes

Oil for pan frying (I used 1/4 cup of vegetable oil)

1/4 cup soy sauce, low sodium preferred

1 egg, beaten

1 cup cornstarch

General Tso's sauce (recipe available here)

Instructions:

Mix egg, soy sauce, and cornstarch in a large bowl.  The mix will be very thick and have a putty-like consistency.    Fold chicken piece into mixture to coat and then use a fork to remove.  Allow excess to drip and then set chicken on a plate.  After all pieces are coated, fry chicken in pan at 350 degrees until browned.  Drain oil from cooked chicken but placing on a paper towel.  Serve over rice and top with General Tso's sauce.