This week on Throwdown Kitchen, we show you how to make spicy General Tsos Chicken. This is an Americanized General Tso’s Chicken recipe and it is found in every neighborhood Chinese restaurant across the country. It is very easy to make with simple ingredients.
The star of the show in this recipe is the General Tso’s sauce. Spicy and sweet, the sauces heat can be easily adjusted to suit your taste. More heat? Add more chilies. But, stay true to the rest of the recipe for the right balance of spices. Garlic, ginger, vinegar and sugar all play important parts when building the flavor profile of this sauce.
Table of contents
Watch How We Made General Tso’s Chicken
Easy General Tso’s At Home
General Tso’s chicken is a deep-fried Asian inspired dish that is offered on Chinese American restaurant menus across the United States. The spicy and sweet sauce paired with fried chicken bites is a takeaway favorite. Orange Chicken is a variation and is the Panda Express top seller.
When you are making this General Tso’s chicken recipe at home, the ingredient list is really very simple. I suggest you keep these items in your pantry, because once you made this easy copycat dish, you’ll be hooked. Hook line and sinker.
How To Make Generals Tso’s Chicken
This is what you’ll need to make General Tso’s Chicken:
- Soy Sauce
- Sweet Rice Wine
- Rice Vinegar
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Sugar
- Dried Red Chilies
- Cornstarch
- Chicken Breast or Thighs
Marinate The Chicken
Combine 1 cup of rice wine and 1/4 cup of soy sauce in a bowl. Add in the boneless diced chicken thigh and marinate for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours in the refrigerator.
If you prefer chicken breast instead of thigh meat, that’s fine too. Many of our friends prefer all white meat for this version of General Tso’s chicken.
Remove the chicken from the marinade. Discard the marinade and toss the chicken in the all-purpose flour and press until each piece is nicely coated. Shake off any excess dredge and set aside in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set up.
Let’s Get Woking
Fill a wok or deep pot with canola oil and heat the oil to 375 degrees. If you have a deep fryer, all the better. But, in this case we are going to dirty only one pan, so we’ll stick with our wok.
Add the chicken pieces, a few at a time, to the hot oil and cook for 6 to 8 minutes until golden brown. Remove the fried chicken from the oil and set aside on a rack or paper towels. At this point I usually just set the chicken aside while I make the quick sauce, alternatively, you may put them in a warm oven set to 170-180 degrees.
How To Make General Tso’s Sauce
Start your General Tso’s sauce by adding 1 tablespoon of canola oil to the wok. On medium high heat, stir in minced garlic (3 cloves), minced ginger (1 tablespoon), and the red chilies with the seeds removed (1/4 cup).
Stir-fry these spices for a minute until fragrant. Carefully add in the sweet rice wine (1/4 cup), Soy sauce (1/4 cup), rice wine vinegar (1/4 cup), and white sugar (1/4 cup).
Let this mix simmer for a minute and then add in a cornstarch slurry of water (1 tablespoon) and cornstarch (1 tablespoon). Stir the mix and the sauce will thicken.
Now, finally add in the crispy fried chicken bites and toss the whole mixture until nicely coated in General Tso’s Sauce.
General Tso’s Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
Marinade
- 1 cup Sweet rice wine
- 1/4 cup Soy sauce
For the Chicken
- 1 Pound Turkey thigh boneless
- 1 cup Flour
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 2 cups Canola oil for frying
For The General Tso's Sauce
- 1 tablespoon Canola oil
- 2 tablespoons Garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon Ginger minced
- 1/4 cup Chinese red chilies seeds removed
- 1/4 cup Sweet rice wine
- 1/4 cup Soy sauce
- 1/4 cup Rice wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup Sugar white
Instructions
- Make the marinade for the chicken by combining sweet rice wine (1 cup) with soy sauce (1/4 cup)
- Dice the chicken thigh meat (1 pound) and then marinate the chicken pieces for 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. Refrigerate while marinating the chicken.
- Combine 1 cup of flour with 1 teaspoon of salt.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade. Discard the marinade. Firmly dredge the chicken pieces in the flour and shake of any excess. Place the chicken on a rack or platter and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Heat the oil in the wok to 375 degrees.
- Drop the chicken pieces in the oil a few at a time and cook in batches if need be, for 6 to 8 minutes. Until golden brown. Place on a rack or on paper towels and keep warm.
Make The General Tso's sauce
- Heat a wok or pan over medium high heat and add canola oil (1 tablespoon). Sauté the minced garlic (2 tablespoons), minced ginger (1 tablespoon), seeded Chinese red chilies (1/4 cup) for 1 minute. Add the sweet rice wine (1/4 cup), soy sauce (1/4 cup), rice wine vinegar (1/4 cup) and white sugar (1/4 cup) to the sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook for another minute.Mix a cornstarch slurry with water (1tablespoon) and cornstarch (1 tablespoon)Add the cornstarch slurry to the sauce and cook about 1 more minute until thickened.
- Toss the General Tso's Sauce with the fried chicken. Served immediately over rice. Enjoy!
Nutrition
My food demons are Chinese food, sugar, butter.
Kirstie Alley
Throwdown Kitchen
Throwdown Kitchen is the cooking show that features fast and easy recipes that everyone can enjoy. Everyday casual food and entertainment is all about friends and family. People get that and we hope you do too.
There are not going to be Beef Wellington recipes with Truffle Oil. Instead, we prefer to showcase wonderful recipes that are casual and meant for entertaining, like General Tso’s Chicken. Other featured recipes are all about casual entertaining, burgers, barbecue, diners and drive-ins.
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