General Tso's Chicken

We made this for dinner last night, and wow! (Like, I had to go back for a third helping while I was writing this up.) I love that I'm slowly stockpiling amazing recipes for our favorite Chinese foods, but at the same time, I'm making it impossible to ever again eat at a Chinese restaurant. The all-you-can-eat $6.99 buffet isn't going to cut it anymore. I'm almost afraid to make the spring roll recipe from a Vietnamese grandmother (not mine, another blogger's). Do I have time to make my own spring rolls if I realize I can never go back? Yeah, I know, my first world problems. And the blog I got this from--awesome! I've tried several of their recipes and they have all been amazing. It's written by a married couple who alternate posting recipes (how cool is that), and they sound just like what I want to be--living in a 100-year-old farmhouse in Maine, raising goats, cooking and eating. Sign me up!

This one is a little spicy. Not crazy spicy, but I'd bet it's more of an adult meal. Fine by me because we got to eat it all! I'm used to a sweeter version in restaurants, but this was way better with just a hint of sweetness to it.

Sorry there are so many random ingredients in this one, though. We're very blessed to have an amazing International section at the Commissary, so I didn't have trouble finding them. They're actually pretty common ingredients for many of the Asian recipes I've been saving lately, so I didn't mind trying some new things since I'll be using them often instead of letting it take up space on my fridge door. Hope you feel the same way and can find them all just as easily!  

I did have to make a few changes again. I substituted apple juice for the sherry (I read somewhere that you can use vanilla extract too, but I wasn't sure what that would taste like). And I did cut down the hoisin sauce to 1 tablespoon. I have only made one other meal with hoisin sauce, and I made the mistake of smelling it straight from the jar. I truly thought I was going to die. Fermented soybeans do not smell good. Who knew? I couldn't get the smell out of my nose, and I hated the whole meal because all I could taste was the hoisin sauce. I wasn't going to ruin this one by putting in that much. I think one tablespoon flavored it perfectly this time. I could still pick out the flavor, but in a good way. So, if you're not used to cooking with hoisin sauce either, I'd stick to the 1 tablespoon. And don't smell it. I also didn't have any scallions or even green onions. (I had to start over my jar of never-ending green onions. Long story.) Ridiculous, I know, but that's why they're missing from the picture. Next time!

Printable Recipe

General Tso’s Chicken

 from From Away

3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized chunk

2 tablespoons dry white sherry or apple juice

1/4 cup chicken stock or broth

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

2 teaspoon Sriracha sauce (it's a kind of hot sauce)

2 teaspoons sesame oil

3 tablespoons sugar

1/3 cup + 2 teaspoons cornstarch, divided

Peanut oil, for frying (I used canola oil like always)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced, or 1/4 tsp dried

6-8 “Japonese” dried red whole chilis (ours were with the Hispanic foods in a HUGE bag)

3 scallions, white and green parts, cut into half-inch chunks

Steamed rice (we used 4 cups prepared)

In a large bowl, toss chicken chunks with sherry and a pinch of salt, and set aside to marinate for 15 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine chicken stock, soy sauce, vinegar, hoisin, Sriracha, sesame oil, sugar, and 2 teaspoons of the cornstarch. Stir until smooth.

When ready to cook, drain chicken, then toss to coat evenly with remaining 1/3 cup of cornstarch. Chicken should have a dry coating of cornstarch; add a little more if coating seems moist.

In a wok or a large skillet over medium heat, bring oil to 325 degrees. Add chicken in batches and cook, stirring often, until chicken is brown on all sides, about 4-5 minutes. (It took me four batches to cook it all. The meat will cook more evenly if you don't overload your wok.)

When each batch is done, remove from wok and drain on paper towels.

Pour most of the oil out of the skillet, until only a thin coating remains in the pan.

Add garlic and ginger to pan and stir until fragrant, about 15 seconds.

Add whole chilies, chicken pieces, and scallion pieces, and toss to combine.

Add sauce and simmer, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens, becomes shiny, and evenly coats chicken.

Top with more sliced scallions and serve immediately with steamed rice.

Makes 4 or 5 servings


Serve with: Egg Rolls

P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef

This is my favorite dish to order at P.F. Chang's, and I was so excited to find this version in my Top Secret Recipes book. Definitely a keeper--even the boys loved it! This is supposed to serve two, but it made enough for the four of us. You can also use two pounds of flank steak without doubling the rest of the ingredients (although you'll want more rice). There's a lot of sauce left over in the standard recipe, and since you're supposed to discard it anyway, it stretches enough to cover the extra meat (we actually add some sauce on top of the rice--it seems like such a waste to put in that much work and then throw it away!). Since you don't cook the steak very long, if you get something other than flank steak, it's important to get a good cut that doesn't need a lot of cooking to become tender. We've used a top round London broil with great success.

Printable Recipe

P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef

2 tsp. vegetable oil
½ tsp. minced ginger
1 Tbsp. chopped garlic
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup water
¾ cup dark brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil
1 lb flank steak
¼ cup cornstarch
2 large green onions
3 cups cooked rice


Make the sauce by heating 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat. Don't get the oil too hot or you'll get a major spatter when adding the other liquids.

Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches.

Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to about medium and boil the sauce for 2 to 3 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove it from the heat.

Slice the flank steak against the grain into ¼" thick bite-size slices. Tilt the blade of your knife at about a forty five degree angle to the top of the steak so that you get wider cuts.

Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef.

Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks.

As the beef sits, heat up one cup of oil in a wok (you may also use a skillet for this step as long as the beef will be mostly covered with oil).

Heat the oil over medium heat until it's hot, but not smoking.

Add the beef to the oil and saute for just two minutes, or until the beef just begins to darken on the edges. You don't need a thorough cooking here since the beef is going to go back on the heat later. Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly.

After a couple minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and place onto paper towels, then pour the oil out of the wok or skillet.

Put the pan back over the heat, dump the meat back into it and simmer for one minute.

Add the sauce, cook for one minute while stirring, then add all the green onions.

Cook for one more minute, then remove the beef and onions with tongs or a slotted spoon to a serving plate.

Leave the excess sauce behind in the pan (or put a little on top of your rice).

Serve over warm rice.

Makes 2 to 4 servings.

Serve with: Egg Rolls

Sesame Chicken

This is by far my favorite recipe (okay, it's a tie with my Chicken Pot Pie recipe, but that's because they're both so amazing). Super easy and delicious! I believe I found it through foodgawker.com. It has just a bit of a kick to it from the red pepper flakes, but it's not really hot or spicy. I made it the first time, and four days later, I made it again. And I never do that. You've got to try this one!

*Updates*

I've made a few changes to this recipe:

I usually use frozen chicken breast, and if you do too, it's best if you get the chicken ready to go a few hours ahead of time. There is a lot of juice/water that needs to drain out of the chicken, and if you defrost and chop the chicken immediately before tossing it with the spices, you're more likely to have gummy chicken instead of a nice coating. Defrost the chicken, cube it, put it in the fridge and drain the juice every so often until you're ready to use it.

The recipe said to place all of the spices for the coating into a plastic bag, but sometimes the flour sticks more to the bag than the chicken. I like putting everything in a large plastic container with a lid and shaking it around in that. It seems to coat the chicken better.

And finally, make sure you do cook the chicken in two batches. You never want to overload your wok. If you're using a skillet, you probably are okay to do it in one batch, but I haven't tried it that way, so I can't promise anything.


Printable Recipe

  Sesame Chicken

from http://www.letsdishrecipes.com

5 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into chunks

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Dash of ground cloves
Dash of ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Rice, prepared (about 4-5 cups)


In a large plastic container with a lid (or a large resealable plastic bag), combine flour, black pepper, ground ginger, garlic salt, red pepper flakes, cloves, and cinnamon.

Place chicken into the container, cover, and shake to coat.

In a small bowl, stir together teriyaki sauce, honey and soy sauce. Set aside. (If you use a rice cooker for your rice, this is when I start mine. It's done right about the time the chicken is finished.)

Heat oil in a wok (or large skillet) over medium-high heat.

Place half of the chicken into wok, and brown on both sides, about 5 minutes.

Remove to a plate (try to leave as much oil as you can in the wok), and repeat process with remaining chicken--you may need to add another tbsp. of oil before adding the chicken.

When the second batch is finished cooking, return all of the chicken to the wok. Reduce heat to low.

Mix in teriyaki and honey mixture and stir until sauce thickens.

Remove from heat.

Stir in sesame seeds and serve immediately over rice.

Serve with: Egg rolls

Barbecue Chicken Chinese Style

We really enjoyed this marinade. Instead of just sitting on top of the chicken, each bite was infused with flavor. Yes, infused. I found it originally in a DVO newsletter.


Printable Recipe 

Barbecue Chicken Chinese Style

from http://www.dvo.com

1 cut up frying chicken (or 5 to 6 legs and thighs)
3 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp pepper


Mix oil, ginger, garlic powder, soy sauce, dry mustard and pepper.

Place chicken in a large baking dish, and pour the marinade over the chicken.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. The longer you can let it marinate, the better the flavor will be. If you leave it overnight, it will be amazing!

Place chicken on a roasting pan (I recommend lining the bottom with foil for quicker clean-up).

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes (or for crispier skin, cook for 60 minutes).

Every 15 minutes, baste the chicken with the drippings (don't skip this step!).

After 50 minutes, turn the oven to 450 degrees for another 10 minutes.

Makes 4 servings