Hey, folks.
General Tso's chicken is the Chinese-American favorite that everyone loves to complain about.
It's either too saucy, too sweet, too breaded or not crispy enough and more often than not, all at the same time.
But by making your own sauce and frying up chicken thighs from scratch we can take this takeout classic to a whole new level.
Let's get down to basics.
All right, folks, today's method comes courtesy of J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, creator of all good recipes ever written.
Into a large bowl, we are separating two egg whites and beating until frothy.
This is going to serve as the basis for our chicken marinade. Once those eggs are good and frothed,
we're going to add 3 tablespoons of dark soy sauce,
3 tablespoons of Chinese cooking wine and 3 tablespoons of Vodka.
Before you get to tempted to drink this General Tso's cocktail,
we're going to beat it together and set aside half for a very special use down the line.
Then to the half of the marinade, in the large bowl, we're going to add 1/4 of a teaspoon of baking soda and 3 tablespoons of cornstarch.
Then one last time, we are whisking until smooth and no lumps remain before even thinking about introducing it to our chicken,
which according to Chinese takeout law, must be dark meat, but you can use white meat if you like.
I've got about a pound and a half of boneless, skinless chicken thighs here that I'm cutting into 1-inch pieces.
That might seem a little small, but the breading is going to add a lot of volume.
Mix together rigorously by hand, making sure that every piece is evenly coated in the mixture and then cover and set aside for about 20 minutes.
During which time we're going to get started on our breading.
I'm combining 1 cup each all-purpose flour and cornstarch in a shallow wide pan or your breading vessel of choice,
and adding 1 teaspoon each of baking powder and salt, tiny whisking until homogenous,
and then performing the all-important step of adding a few tablespoons of the reserved marinade to the flour mixture and then we're going to incorporate that
marinade using our fingers, breaking up and dispersing evenly to make tiny little clumps of breading.
This is going to make the craggly, crusty nooks and crannies that we know and love on our General Tso's.
This is the same technique we employed two weeks ago in recreating KFC's Fried Chicken.
Go ahead and set that aside because finally it is time to work on our sauce.
Into a small bowl goes 4 tablespoons of dark soy sauce, 4 tablespoons of Chinese cooking wine,
3 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar,
4 tablespoons of chicken stock,
1/4 cup (or 4 tablespoons) of sugar, 1 teaspoon of roasted sesame seed oil and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.
Once again, whisk until completely smooth and no lumps remain,
and then set aside because it's time to negotiate the only vegetable that we're having with dinner,
(unless you plan on steaming up some broccoli, which I do not.)
We're going to thinly slice all the whites and maybe two inches worth of the greens of six scallions.
That, along with four cloves of garlic, two inches of freshly grated ginger and a little bit of funk.
I think I was listening to Room Service by Chromeo?
We are now gonna head on over to the stovetop, where we're gonna saute our aromatics.
In a high-walled saute pan, we're heating two tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium-high heat until shimmering,
adding most of our scallions, reserving some of the greens for garnish, and grating in our garlic and fresh ginger.
Sauté for about one minute until it's the best smelling thing you've ever smelled and we're gonna add a dozen Arbol chilies,
(which you can optionally omit if you are afraid of spicy things.)
Once we've let those flavors get to know each other for about an additional minute,
we're pouring in our sauce mixture,
scraping up all that good stuff off the bottom of the pot and cooking for one more minute until the sauce has thickened.
Next and last, it's time to fry our chicken.
We're heating a quart of vegetable oil to 375°F whilst we commence to breading.
One piece at a time, we're going to add the marinated chicken to the flour mixture and toss to coat.
Continue until all the chicken has been added and all the pieces have been coated.
And with that into the frying oil they go, one piece at a time, lowering in gently and taking care not to crowd.
We're gonna go ahead and fry the chicken in batches about four minutes per batch,
removing and placing on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet and keeping in a low oven until all the chicken is complete.
Then all that's left to do is toss with our sauce.
Oh! Cheese and crackers!
Place the sauce back over medium-low heat and toss the chicken to coat.
I think I made a little bit too much chicken and not enough sauce, so I adjusted the recipe accordingly in this voiceover.
D'oh! Jiminy Crickets!
But as you can see, it was still a tremendous success.
It looks just like the restaurant stuff but it's super crispy and it has a deeper, less cloyingly sweet flavor.
To make white rice, I generally bring the package specified amount of water to a boil in a small saucepan,
add the rice, cover and place in a 375°F oven for about 15-20 minutes.
After plating up and seasoning the rice with a little bit of kosher salt,
it's time to pile our sweet, saucy, spicy chicken on top and garnish with our reserved sliced scallions.
Now, General Tso's seems like one of those things that you'd probably never want to recreate at home.
It's just too easy and inexpensive to buy, but I am telling you that this one is worth it.
Kenji has developed a recipe that will make you rethink a dish that you were certain you knew by heart.
and it only takes like 45 minutes to make, which is about how long takes to order takeout.
So, what are you waiting for? Go make some.