Kung Pao Chicken

Make Chinese restaurant quality Kung Pao Chicken in your own kitchen with this easy to follow recipe. With crispy, tender, mouthwatering chicken pieces swimming in the most delicious, silky Chinese sauce, this is one Kung Pao chicken recipe that’ll be hard to pass up!

WHAT IS KUNG PAO CHICKEN

You’ve tried Sweet and Sour Pork, Chicken Cow Mein and Chinese Lemon Chicken, well now it’s time to meet the final boss – Kung Pao Chicken! This Kung Pao chicken recipe has been one of our most requested! Traditionally, this Chinese chicken dish is a dry-stir fry; not a lot of sauce is added into Kung Pao chicken. However, with the flavour explosions you’ll experience eating this dish, you won’t need or want any more sauce. There’s so much flavour in this dish, it’s crazy!

WHAT IS VELVETING

Velveting is a meat tenderising technique used by Chinese restaurants and it’s super easy. First, you’re going to marinate chicken pieces in a mixture of cornstarch, baking soda and Chinese wine (or sherry, rice wine or vinegar). Then you’re going to quickly fry them in hot oil before finishing them off in the stir-fry with other ingredients. The cornstarch/soy/wine marinade not only provides amazing flavour to the chicken, it acts as a protective coating which seals moisture inside the chicken, creating beautiful golden edges while preventing the chicken from overcooking.

KUNG PAO CHICKEN SAUCE

The perfect time to prepare your sauce is while your chicken is marinating. Having everything ready before you start a stir fry is essential — and the sauce is the most important part! Well, besides the chicken. Once your chicken is done, add in your sauce and watch it bubble and turn into a beautiful, slightly thick and silky sauce, coating each piece of chicken perfectly.

HOW TO MAKE KUNG PAO CHICKEN

There are six main ingredients you’ll need to make the perfect Kung Pan chicken:

Chicken broth or stock (use low sodium) — you can also use water if you don’t have any broth on hand. Light soy — use light or low sodium if you can. Regular soy creates an unpleasant, salty sauce. Dark soy sauce — adds beautiful colour and flavour to the sauce. Hoisin sauce — more depth of flavour! Chinese black vinegar — or a good quality balsamic vinegar can be used instead. Chinese wine (Shaoxing) — to substitute you can use any of the following: dry sherry, gin, rice wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar.

For the stir fry, I’ve included broth, red and green bell peppers (or capsicums) and the traditional roasted peanuts. You can also add in diced celery, sliced carrots and/or zucchini!

SICHUAN PEPPERCORNS (SZECHUAN PEPPER)

We can’t call it Kung Pao Chicken without Sichuan (or Szechuan) pepper! Sichuan creates a delicious, mouth-numbing heat that’s very difficult to replicate with other ingredients. Find Sichuan in Asian grocery stores and supermarkets, or Chinatown shops (even gourmet chains such as Whole Foods). To toast them, add to a dry pan, wok or skillet over medium heat. Stir for about one minute until fragrant. Then transfer to a mortar and pestle to grind.