general tso's chicken

There's this place called Double Dragon in Louisville that I love. Tyler and I agree they make the best General Tso's chicken we've ever had. General's Tso's chicken is very similar to sesame chicken, it's just a little tangier and much more spicy.

Since we moved to Oakland, we have been missing Double Dragon, so here is my version of General Tso's. The sauce it not quite the same but it is very tasty! I'm going to keep working on it until it's just right.

I'm also not one for deep frying, so this General Tso's chicken recipe involves just a little bit of pan frying and some egg whites and cornstarch to get a crispy outer covering. :D

Step 1: What you'll need:

for the chicken:

• 1 pound chicken breasts or thighs, cut into bite size pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 egg white
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

sauce:

• 3/4 cup chicken stock or water
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1/2 tablespoon chili/garlic paste (I added a little more)
• 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch (If you like a thinner sauce, start with a tablespoon)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• few tablespoons of chopped green onion
• dried red chilies (optional, I used 3!)
• 1 teaspoon canola oil

It looks like a ton of ingredients - but lots of these make fantastic pantry staples. I almost always have them on hand so it's easy to throw together. This recipe also makes a good amount of sauce, perfect for people like me that love putting sauce on their rice. :D

And be careful with the ginger and the sesame oil in this recipe. Both of them can completely overpower all the other flavors. Start with the minimum amounts, and if that's really not enough, add more a little at a time. But I warned you. ;)

Also, if you'd like rice:

• 1 cup jasmine or basmati rice
• 1 3/4 cups water
• generous pinch of salt

Bring the water and salt to a boil, add the rice, stir and cover. Cook for 22 minutes over low heat. Turn the heat off, let set for 10 minutes, fluff with a fork. :)

Comments

[thomas9666]

This tastes amazing! although mine always turns out way darker than your pictures. Still tastes great, thanks for sharing this with the world!

[Livingstrong]

Great instructable! Tried this twice withing a week. Once with the WHOLE family and again with just the people at my house. Both were great.

A thought I had was to make a few batches of the sauce and put it in a bottle for a quick way to put the sauce on other things.

Livingstrong

[nbeck2]

This worked extremely well! Next time I'm doubling the garlic and ginger. Thank you!!!

[nchanti]

I tried this recipe and it is fantastic. Looking forward to making it again.

[coolbeansbaby68]

That looks yummy !!!

[thecastironchef]

Oh this looks really good and relatively easy. I'll fix this the next time we do Sushi! Thanks!

[Schober]

So glad that you posted this! I've made General Tso's chicken in the past but the deep frying takes forever. This will make the process so much faster.

When I make this I like it really spicy, and I have some chili oil on hand from previous times. But I was wondering, which, if any of the other oils could I substitute for chili oil?

[Railes]

You can also use rice flower to thicken your sauces. I've found that corn starch can leave an after taste. Great recipe though loved it.

[hottamaleindustries]

I'm probably too excited that you talked about Double Dragon. I live in Louisville. Nice recipe too! I'll need to try it out.

[kuato]

Definitely going to try this! One thing, you forgot the last step: add Sriracha :)

[jessyratfink]

Haha, you're right. I added a ton of chili garlic paste though, so it kinda evened out. :D

[btrthngr8]

Mmmmm!

[seamster]

Mmmm. This looks SO good. I'm going to add this to our weekly menu, right now!

[M.C. Langer]

Looks DELICIOUS!!! :-)