Kung Pao Chicken

Kung pao chicken (also spelled gongbao, 宮保雞丁) is a dish of Chinese Sichuan cuisine. Its characteristic elements are chicken, peanuts, spring onions and (typical for Sichuan) plenty of chili. Ginger and garlic also play an important role and vegetables can be added as desired. Instead of chicken, the dish can also be prepared very well with prawns.

In American-Chinese cuisine in particular, there are many variations that use ingredients such as hoisin sauce. However, this sauce does not originate from Sichuan cuisine. We are not criticizing any of the many preparation methods, but the recipe presented here stays closer to the origin and is therefore something different from the dishes usually served in restaurants.

Kung pao is very easy to cook, but as always with stir-frying in a wok, preparation is key. In the end, it goes so quickly that all the elements have to be prepped and ready.

Peanuts are roasted in a little neutral vegetable oil over a high heat for 2 – 3 minutes until they darken slightly. Then it is best to leave them to cool on kitchen paper, where they will release any excess oil.

Szechuan pepper, dried chili (without seeds and cut into large pieces) and some Doubanjiang (e.g. the product from the manufacturer Pixian) provide heat.

Plenty of ginger and garlic are cut into thin slices, but not finely chopped, as you want to be able to taste them individually later.

A sauce made from chicken stock, soy sauce and Shaoxing cooking wine is prepared, which also gets its special character from sugar and black rice vinegar. A little corn starch thickens the sauce during cooking so that it coats the ingredients. As always, the exact quantities are given at the end of the recipe.

The chicken meat (from the leg or breast, depending on taste) is cut into 2 cm pieces and marinated in a typical Chinese way:

„Velveting“

You may read about “velveting” as a technique used in Chinese cuisine to treat meat in particular before it is exposed to the heat of a cooking process. In this way, even under the very high heat of stir-frying in a wok, it remains tender inside and does not dry out. However, you should be aware of the fact that this not a Chinese definition but a western perception (and a summary) of some typical Chinese cooking techniques.

The raw meat is coated with corn starch, which becomes a protective casing during frying. The cornstarch is dissolved in cold liquid and the meat is marinated in it. Both water and egg white can be used for this. Shaoxing wine and/or soy sauce are often used to add flavor. Baking soda is sometimes used to make the meat even more tender. However, this makes more sense for beef than for chicken.

Spring onions, cut into pieces about 3 cm long, are an important part of this dish. Bamboo shoots are used less frequently, but for us they harmonize perfectly. We also like to increase the proportion of vegetables with finely diced peppers, in different colors for visual appeal.

If you want to add more vegetables, you can use carrots and/or celery, but you should pre-cook both briefly, as these vegetables would hardly be cooked when stir-frying alone.

Then set the wok to a high heat (we: 8 – 9 out of 10). First, the flavor of Szechuan peppercorns is extracted in neutral vegetable oil for 2 minutes, then the peppercorns are removed, as it is not pleasant to bite on them.

Dried chili and doubanjiang are roasted in the oil until they begin to smell intensely…

…and then immediately the marinated meat is added to the wok. It will stick to the metal, so don’t try to stir it straight away. It will come off more easily once the underside has been sealed by the searing. This takes about a minute. Only then do you stir so that the meat comes into contact with the hot wok on all sides. Now add the ginger and garlic and stir into the meat.

After around a minute, there is an intense aroma of ginger and garlic – now it’s time for the vegetables, which are sautéed while stirring constantly. They should cook but remain crunchy.

This is achieved after another 2 minutes or so and only now is the prepared sauce added to the wok. It must boil so that the starch dissolved in it swells and thickens the sauce. Just keep stirring until the sauce coats the other ingredients and then add the roasted peanuts last.

This results in a delicious and very fruity dish. The interplay of spiciness, sweetness, acidity and umami is ingenious and makes your mouth water just looking at it. Every mouthful tastes a little different: sometimes the ginger and garlic take center stage, sometimes the chilli, sometimes the vinegar and sometimes the peanuts. There is no room for boredom.

Enjoy.

And may the taste be with you.

Ingredients (for 2 people):

400 – 500 g chicken meat, leg or breast to taste

2 tsp Szechuan pepper

4 – 6 dried chilies without seeds

1 tbsp doubanjiang (chili bean paste)

4 – 6 garlic cloves

2 – 3 cm ginger

80 g bamboo shoots (canned)

1 bunch spring onions (approx. 5 pieces)

50 g peanuts

Optional: vegetables of your choice, for example bell pepper

Some neutral vegetable oil


Marinade:

1 tbsp water

1 tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp neutral vegetable oil

1 tbsp starch

Salt and white pepper


Sauce:

1 tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine

1 tbsp sugar

½ tbsp Chinkiang vinegar (alternatively: dark balsamic vinegar)

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp chicken stock (alternatively water) + 3 tsp starch

1 tsp sesame oil

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