morsels45

morsels45 said

Kung pao chicken

Numbing, sweet-sour, with peanuts and a lot of dried chilli you leave behind.

Kung pao chicken
Photo: Steven G. Johnson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. A photo of the dish, not of these exact recipes.

That was somebody else’s answer. Yours takes about twenty seconds: a handful of either-ors, then one dish.

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How to make kung pao chicken

2 genuinely different takes — a classic, and a faster or lighter route. The same ones the app hands you once you have decided.

Gong bao, properly

25 minutes · serves 2 · Medium

What you need

  • 400g chicken thighs, diced
  • 1 tbsp cornflour
  • 80g roasted peanuts
  • 10 dried chillies, halved
  • 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
  • 4 spring onions, in lengths
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • For the sauce: 2 tbsp black vinegar, 2 tbsp soy, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp cornflour

What you do

  1. 1Toss the chicken in cornflour, soy and a splash of water and leave it 15 minutes. This velveting is why restaurant chicken is tender.
  2. 2Mix the sauce in a bowl before you start. There is no time once the pan is hot.
  3. 3Very hot wok: dried chillies and Sichuan pepper for 20 seconds, until fragrant, not black.
  4. 4Chicken in, spread out, left alone 90 seconds, then tossed until just done.
  5. 5Garlic, spring onion, then the sauce round the edge. It thickens in seconds. Peanuts in off the heat so they stay crisp.

With cashews, milder

20 minutes · serves 2 · Easy

What you need

  • 400g chicken
  • 100g cashews
  • 2 dried chillies
  • Pepper, garlic, spring onion
  • Soy, vinegar, sugar, cornflour

What you do

  1. 1Same method with fewer chillies and cashews in place of peanuts.
  2. 2Add a diced pepper with the garlic if you want more in the bowl.