Kung pao chicken

Name: Kung pao chicken
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: China
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons Soy sauce; 80 g Peanuts; 3 cloves Garlic; 1 tablespoon Sugar; 3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil; 1 piece Ginger; 2 tablespoons Rice Vinegar; 1 tablespoon Cornstarch; 600 g Chicken Thighs; 4 u Spring Onions; 1 teaspoon Sesame Seed Oil; 2 tablespoons Shaoxing Wine; 1 teaspoon Sichuan pepper; 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce; 10 u Dried Red Chillies; 3 tablespoons Water

Pollo kung pao

Medium

Contains allergens

Cereales con glutenSojaCacahuetes

Incomplete allergen information: some ingredients have not been reviewed yet. Always check the labels before cooking.

Author: Equipo Cocinoa
Preparation time: 30 min
Servings: 4

Summary

The Sichuan classic: diced chicken stir-fried in a wok with dried chillies, Sichuan pepper and peanuts in a glossy sauce that is sweet, sour and salty all at once. Hot, fragrant and ready in half an hour.

Ingredients

4 servings

Add to Bring!

3 tablespoons Soy sauce (1 for the marinade and 2 for the sauce)
80 g Peanuts (skinned, raw or unsalted roasted)
3 cloves Garlic
1 tablespoon Sugar
3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1 piece Ginger (about 2 cm)
2 tablespoons Rice Vinegar (or Chinkiang black vinegar)
1 tablespoon Cornstarch
600 g Chicken Thighs (boneless and skinless)
4 u Spring Onions
1 teaspoon Sesame Seed Oil
2 tablespoons Shaoxing Wine (or dry sherry)
1 teaspoon Sichuan pepper (whole)
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce (for colour) (optional)
10 u Dried Red Chillies (whole)
3 tablespoons Water

Instructions

Cut the chicken into 1.5 cm cubes and mix in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 of Shaoxing wine and 2 teaspoons of cornflour. Leave to marinate while you prepare everything else.
10 min
Make the sauce in a glass: the rest of the soy sauce and wine, the dark soy, vinegar, sugar, remaining cornflour, water and sesame oil. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
3 min
Snip the chillies in half with scissors and shake out the seeds. Thinly slice the garlic and ginger and cut the spring onions into 1 cm lengths, using the white and pale green parts.
5 min
If the peanuts are raw, fry them in the wok oil over a low heat, stirring, until golden. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and let them cool: they crisp up as they cool down. If they're already roasted, skip this step.
5 min
With the wok over a medium heat, add the Sichuan pepper and chillies to the oil and stir until the chillies darken a little and smell fragrant, without letting them burn.
1 min
Turn the heat up to high, add the chicken in an even layer and stir-fry until it is no longer pink and starts to brown.
4 min
Add the garlic, ginger and spring onion and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Stir the sauce (the cornflour sinks to the bottom), pour it in and toss until it thickens and coats the chicken in an even gloss.
2 min
Turn off the heat, stir in the peanuts and serve straight away with plain rice.

Notes

The dish is named after Ding Baozhen, a 19th-century governor of Sichuan whose official title was gongbao. Sichuan pepper isn't hot: it gently numbs the mouth and primes your palate for the heat of the chillies. Fry the chillies only until they darken slightly; burnt chillies make the whole dish bitter, and they are there for aroma, not for eating. Add the peanuts at the very end so they stay crunchy. If you have no Shaoxing wine, use dry sherry; Chinkiang black vinegar is the authentic choice, but rice vinegar works. Allergy warning: contains peanuts.