Andrew's Blog

Update: I've made some changes to this recipe since I've posted it. I think it's better as a result.

Those of you who've known me for a while have probably, at some point, heard about my obsession with Kung Pao Chicken. I've always really liked it as a recipe, but it wasn't until I started eating at Little Szechuan in Doraville, GA that I truly fell hard for the dish. Their recipe was something I could probably eat everyday for the rest of my life. They load it up with jicama and pickled gai choy: it's truly delicious. Ever since then, my Kung Pao Chicken interest has turned into a mania. I've eaten the dish at countless restaurants (the most memorable has to be the Georgia Tech cafeteria's take on the dish: boiled chicken parts, peanut butter, canned chicken broth, and soy sauce (I'm serious; eating this dish made me cry)). Now that I live in a Chinese restaurant vacuum (the best place in the area still has Chop Suey on the menu!), my Kung Pao Chicken project took on a new urgency. While I still haven't mastered the vegetables (partly b/c I can't get reliable jicama in State College and can't get gai choy at all), I think I've finally nailed down a sauce that is very similar to the one at Little Szechuan but is also a lot more flavorful.

I should point out that I've been working on this recipe for, probably, six years or so. It's mutated quite a bit, but it started from these two recipes from About.com's Chinese Food section. The deep fried version looked like it had a more interesting marinade and sauce, but I wasn't going to deep fry the chicken, so I started combining them. I also adapted the marinade from Rasa Malaysia's recipe. Finally, the most recent change came from looking over Helen Chen's Chinese Home Cooking: she was the one who hipped me to the idea of using cider vinegar instead of rice wine vinegar, as I'd been using.

After that, it was all about tweaking the flavors. The joy of Kung-Pao chicken lies in the saltiness of the soy sauce and vinegar flavor of the sauce. Balancing the two has involved a lot of trial and error (seriously, I make this recipe every week and have for at least four years), but I've finally hit on a balance of flavors that works well. The trick is using three different kinds of soy sauce: light, dark, and mushroom-flavored dark. The mushroom adds a nice, earthiness that is overpowering in large quantities & the light provides a zippy salt hit without make the dish overtly salty in flavor (you want the dominant flavor to be soy sauce, not straight salt). The same problem exists with the two kinds of vinegar. Apple cider vinegar provides a smooth vinegar flavor, while the black vinegar is funky and strange (and really gross on its own, frankly). I think this ratio makes for the best possible Kung Pao Chicken sauce.

Note: I call for MSG in this recipe. I like the umami flavor it brings, but if you have problems with MSG or are worried about possible health ramifications (which haven't been scientifically verified in humans), you won't miss it if you leave it out. I've been meaning to write a post on my experiences with MSG, so look for that in the future.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Kung Pao Chicken 2.0

First Marinade

• 1t baking soda
• 1/2t salt

Second Marinade

• 2 1/2 t dark soy sauce
• 1t sesame oil
• 1T dry sherry
• 1T corn starch

Sauce

• 2T dark soy sauce
• 1/2T mushroom-flavored dark soy sauce
• 1/2T light soy sauce
• 2T apple cider vinegar
• 1T Chiangking black vinegar
• 1 1/2T dry sherry
• 4 1/2T water (I think that if you increase the water, you'll get something closer to Little Szechuan's sauce)
• 1t sugar (crushed up Chinese rock sugar, if possible)
• 2t corn starch
• 1/8t MSG (optional)

Other Ingredients

• 1 lb. boneless chicken breast, cubed in 1/2" cubes
• 4-5 scallions, green and white parts sliced thin
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 dried, red chillies; stem ends removed and sides carefully rubbed together, to remove seeds
• 6 dried, Thai chillies
• 5T peanut oil, divided
• 1/2c unsalted, dry roasted peanuts

Cooking

1. Add the first marinade ingredients to a bowl containing chicken. Stir to mix. Let stand for 15 minutes.
2. Remove the chicken to a wire strainer. Wash out and dry the bowl in which you marinated the chicken. Wash the chicken under the tap and drip dry (it will be sticky, so don't touch it with paper towels).
3. Return the chicken to the bowl you just cleaned. Add the second marinade ingredients to the bowl. Stir to mix. Let stand 15 minutes.
4. Add 3T peanut oil to a wok. Heat over high until oil is shimmering and very hot (a spatula dipped into the marinaded chicken and then into the oil will sizzle). Add the green onions and chicken. Stir-fry until chicken is 80-90% done. Remove green onions and chicken to a plate. Off heat, quickly wipe the wok done with a paper towel to remove any residual marinade.
5. Add 2T peanut oil to wok. Return wok to burner and heat over high heat, as above. When oil is hot, add the garlic. Stir until fragrant (<15 seconds). Add the red chillies and cook until they begin to darken in color. Add the peanuts and stir a few times. Add the sauce. Wait for it to boil and then add the reserved chicken and green onions, along with any juice that may have accumulated on the plate. Let the chicken boil in the sauce until the sauce has thickened and the meat is fully cooked. Remove the red chillies (or don't) and serve.