Friday’s Dinner: Homemade Kung Pao Chicken
Friday night I made a delicious spicy Kung Pao chicken dish, which was VERY WELL RECEIVED may I add! I got the recipe from SeriousEats.com but I skimped ever so slightly on the more spicy stuff like peppercorns & chilies because I ddn’t want to burn our mouths! I also didn’t follow one of the directions correctly, which was to use up the peanut oil which had been flavored by chilies and peppercorns. I didn’t understand the directions correctly, so I discarded of that oil, but I later realized I was meant to use it and it would have made the dish MUCH spicier than it was. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t add it in, although I am pretty curious as to how it would have turned out!
If any of you are interested in making this, here are the ingredients:
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat, and cut into 1/2 to 3/4-inch pieces
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine, (or dry sherry, if unavailable)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch, (or 2 tbsp all-purpose flour, if unavailable)
- 1/3 cup peanut oil
- 1/4 cup Sichuan peppercorns toasted in hot skillet for 30 seconds until fragrant
- 3 scallions (spring onions), whites finely minced, and greens finely sliced, reserved separately
- 1/2 cup fried fresh peanuts or roasted unsalted peanuts
- 2 cloves minced garlic (about 4 teaspoons)
- 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
- 1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar, (or distilled white vinegar, if unavailable)
- 1 tbsp Sichuan fermented chili-bean paste, (or generic Asian chili-garlic sauce, if unavailable)
- 2 tsp sugar
- 12 hot Chinese dry chili peppers, seeded
- 2 small leeks, white and light green parts only, cut into 1/4-inch slices (about 1/2 cup total)
Directions:
- Combine chicken, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine, and 1 teaspoon cornstarch in medium bowl and mix thoroughly. Allow to marinate in fridge for at least 30 minutes, and up to two hours.
- Grind half of Sichuan peppercorns in mortar and pestle. Combine with scallion greens and reserve. Combine scallion whites, garlic, and ginger in small bowl. Combine remaining soy sauce, remaining Shaoxing wine, remaining corn starch, black vinegar, chili-bean paste, and sugar in small bowl and mix until cornstarch is fully dissolved.
- Set fine-meshed strainer over small heat-proof bowl. Heat peanut oil in wok over high heat until shimmering. Add remaining Sichuan peppercorns and dried chiles and cook until fragrant, about fifteen seconds. Drain in strainer. Pick out chiles and reserve. Discard peppercorns.
- Return wok to high heat until smoking. Add 1/4 of oil and immediately add half of marinated chicken. Spread in even layer with spatula. Cook without moving for 1 minute, then cook, stirring and tossing constantly until barely cooked through, about 1 minute longer. Trsnfer to a medium metal bowl. Wipe out wok with paper towel, add another1/4 of oil, and repeat with remaining chicken. Wipe out wok with paper towel, add another 1/4 of the oil, and cook leeks until charred in spots but still slightly crisp, about 1 minute. Add peanuts, reserved chiles, reserved chicken, and remaining oil to wok and push to side to make space in the center of the wok. Add garlic/ginger mixture and cook, stirring mixture constantly until aromatic, about 15 seconds. Toss entire contents of wok together and add sauce. Cook, stirring and tossing constantly until chicken is coated in glossy layer of sauce. Stir in scallion greens and ground Sichuan pepper. Transfer to serving plate and serve immediately with steamed white rice.
I added this recipe to Livestrong’s Daily Plate to see what the nutritional values of it would be, but I genuinely think it was totally off. That recipe above can serve from 3-4 people, and it is a pretty appropriate portion - not as much as you would get in a restaurant, and not skimpy either, pretty much a perfect amount. The chicken is also very lean, and generally none of it was too oily, but Livestrong lists it as incredibly calorific. I didn’t trust it, so I looked up the calories for a generic Kung Pao chicken dish online and it seemed more believable.
Bon Appetit!
