General Tso's Chicken

This is hands down Hubs' favorite Chinese take-out dish. Whenever we order from the place down the street, this is what he gets. Having had so much success with the orange chicken recipe, I thought it would be easy to find a recipe for General Tso's.

Luckily, Joelen had a fantastic looking recipe on her blog. It was another Cook's Illustratated recipe, so I basically made the orange chicken recipe, but with a different sauce. The chicken cooked a lot faster than I thought it would, and had a wonderful crispy texture. One thing about deep frying - if you cook food in oil at the right temperature for the right amount of time, it absorbs very little of the cooking oil. This is why I love deep frying at home. I can control both these factors to get perfectly crunchy food without too much fat.


General Tso’s Chicken
adapted from What’s Cooking Chicago
originally from Cook’s Illustrated

Sauce:
½ c hoisin sauce
¼ c white vinegar
3 Tbs soy sauce
3 Tbs cornstarch
1 ½ c water
1 Tbs vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbs fresh ginger, minced
½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Coating and frying

1 ½ lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 large egg whites
1 ½ c cornstarch
½ c all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
Vegetable oil for frying

2 green onions, green parts thinly sliced
Sesame seeds

To make the sauce, whisk together the hoisin sauce, white vinegar, soy sauce, cornstarch, and water in a bowl. Set aside. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the hoisin mixture. Stir until the sauce is dark brown and has thickened. Remove from heat and cover.

Cut chicken into 1-inch chunks. Whisk the egg whites in a shallow dish until foamy. Combine cornstarch, flour, and baking soda in a separate shallow dish. Toss half the chicken into the foamy egg whites until well coated, and then dredge the chicken in the cornstarch mixture, making all sides are coated. Transfer chicken to a plate and repeat with remaining chicken.

Heat oil in a fryer (or Dutch oven, or a large wok) until it registers 325ºF. Fry the chicken in batches until golden brown, about 3 minutes, turning pieces over halfway through cooking. Transfer cooked chicken to a paper towel-lined baking sheet to drain.

Re-warm the sauce over medium heat until bubbling. Add the chicken pieces and toss to coat. Garnish with sliced green onions and sesame seeds.