Kung Pao Chicken

photo by patti k.
- Ready In:
- 50mins
- Ingredients:
- 14
- Serves:
-
6-8
ingredients
- 2 large whole boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds)
- 1 egg white
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- salt
- 1⁄4 cup black bean sauce
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons chili paste with garlic
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons dry sherry or 2 tablespoons shao-hsing wine
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 8 cloves garlic, peeled and flattened but not chopped
- 2 2 cups vegetable oil or 2 cups corn oil
- 3⁄4 cup raw shelled and hulled fresh unsalted peanuts
- 16 -21 dried hot red chili peppers, cut in half
directions
- Dice chicken into 3/4" cubes and combine with egg white, cornstarch and salt.
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Combine next ingredients through garlic and set aside.
- Heat oil in wok and when it is almost boiling hot but not smoking, turn heat off and add peanuts in a wire sieve so that it and the peanuts inside can be easily removed.
- When peanuts turn golden remove from oil.
- They will continue to cook from retained heat after being removed.
- Don't burn them, they cook very quickly.
- Turn heat back on and when oil is hot add chicken mixture.
- Cook about 45 seconds until chicken is opaque but not browned.
- Remove and drain the chicken on paper toweling.
- Pour off all but 2 T of the oil from the wok.
- Add peppers and cook about 15 seconds, they should be dark.
- Add sauce and chicken and cook about 1 minute more.
- Serve garnished with the peanuts.
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Reviews
-
We really enjoyed this. I used a tsp of crushed red pepper instead of the dried chili peppers and it was soooo spicy, loved it. I doubled the sauce, but that was NOT necessary at all...in fact we scooped some out. This is slightly different that kung pao's I have had, but still wonderful and fabulous with the peanuts. Thanks for a keeper!
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Tweaks
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We really enjoyed this. I used a tsp of crushed red pepper instead of the dried chili peppers and it was soooo spicy, loved it. I doubled the sauce, but that was NOT necessary at all...in fact we scooped some out. This is slightly different that kung pao's I have had, but still wonderful and fabulous with the peanuts. Thanks for a keeper!
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Wow - this is a great Kung POW! Chicken. Nice and spicy, just as promised. My family was very pleased with this (though I did spare the 8-year old by giving her some chicken before I seasoned it). I skipped the cornstarch and oil and just stir fried the chicken pieces and added the heat! I also added some bamboo shoots and shredded carrots and used cashews instead of peanuts. We will definitely have this again. Thanks for posting!
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
sugarpea
Snohomish, WA
I’m a former interior designer and landscape designer. At the moment I get to enjoy being at home and working only when I want to. I like rollerblading, hiking, backpacking and trips to the ocean. I grew up on a farm in the Midwest and moved to the Northwest when I was thirty, over twenty years ago. I’m afraid they’ll have to bury me here in WA. This is God’s country and I’m never leaving.
I have a smallish collection of cookbooks, preferring to use the library and a copy machine. Among my favorites though, are: Recipes 1-2-3, by Rozanne Gold, a collection of recipes containing no more than 3 ingredients (excepting water, salt and pepper); A Treasury of Great Recipes, by Mary and Vincent Price, recipes collected from friends and chefs of great restaurants around the world; The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, by Nancy Harmon Jenkins, about a collection of cuisines I’m convinced are the healthiest in the world and The Low-Calorie Gourmet, by Pierre Franey.
Currently my passions are our dogs, the garden, cooking, the natural world and of course, Dh. I can now add Zaar to that list of passions (translate: addiction). We have three dogs, two rescued and one adopted. They are Sugarpea, a Golden Retriever, Chickpea, a Llasa Apso and Sweetpea, a Shih Tzu; small, medium and large. We’re quite a sight out on the trail. One of the things I am most fond of about living here is the ability to vegetable garden year ‘round.