General Tso's Chicken
Wow! This is even better than the BEST I have had in my fave Chinese restaurant. To make the meal go quickly prep everything the day or night before and store in the fridge. To make this easy to understand I have changed the terms to cornstarch slurry and sauce. The first is used to coat the chicken for frying, the second to coat the fried chicken. HTH I use a grater with small holes for the garlic or you can just zip all the sauce ingredients up in a blender or food processor. Enjoy! NOTE: I really appreciate all the reviews this recipe has received. I know that when making this it seems strange and like it just is not going to work. Trust that it will work even though the method and the way that the cornstarch slurry acts before cooking are so different. I was the same way the first time I made this. It does result in crispy pieces of chicken that are so like you find in a restaurant. The heat here is pretty much a balanced amount because some like it hot and some do not. Taste and add more heat as desired. Thanks again for trying this recipe. I hope that you have the great results that I have had time and again. Here is info, pics and heat levels of different chilies. https://www.foodsubs.com/Chilefre.html
Reviews
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This is an absolutely wonderful recipe!!! So happy I found it. I did make a few changes though...
1. In order to make this dish a little healthier, I skipped frying the chicken. I just seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked in a small amount of olive oil until crispy. Once the sauce was on it, I did not miss the fried part of it and you really could not tell a difference.
2. Sauce: I added fresh ginger and orange juice instead of water. Both added another set of great flavors.
3. I briefly steamed some fresh broccoli and red peppers and added them into the sauce with the chicken.
I will definitley be making this again!
And to all the negative reviews, don't pay attention. People need to use some of their own decision making in the kitchen instead of relying on a recipe to tell them EXACTLY what to do and EXACTLY how long to do something...when the chicken is crispy and cooked, it's done! When the sauce is as thick as you'd like it, take it off the heat :) -
I skipped frying the chicken, and instead dusted it with cornstarch seasoned with salt and pepper, then browned it in a small amount of oil. I followed the rest of the recipe exactly, and it tured out great!
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This was excellent! I added a little extra water to the batter (slurry), used brown sugar in place of white, added some chili paste, sesame oil and ginger to the sauce and used water in place of chicken broth. I also only used about 1/3 C of corn starch in the sauce. Overall, this is definitely worth the effort to make instead of ordering take-out! Just as good or better than I have had from any restaurant. Thank you for this recipe!
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wow i thought this was pretty good!! i am not a cook but i can follow directions and measure. i had no problems making this. the slurry worked fine. i'm not sure what others are complaining about. i don't own a thermometer but had no problems. my chicken was crispy. follow the directions and its good.
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I registered just to review this recipe. Turned out fantastic. The slurry was like cement at first, but I kept the faith and was rewarded with very crispy chicken. If you have a candy thermometer and don't mind micro-managing your burner heat a little bit you can fry as many pieces of chicken in the oil as you like, just be sure to turn the heat up to compensate for the amount you're frying.
One word of caution for timing at the end, if you really want your chicken to stay crispy: There's a lot of sauce per chicken (which I like anyway), so serve it up quick after you coat the chicken. Obviously, if you soak something crispy in any liquid and let it sit it won't stay crispy very long :P
