The Wok Project: Kung Pao Chicken

Have you read that Kung Pao Chicken was the "official dish" of the Beijing Olympics? The blogger that posted didn't read the post they cited as carefully as they should have, because the article was about official English translations for Chinese dishes whose literal translations are very unusual--to say the least--in English.

However they did post a rather nice recipe for Kung Pao Chicken. If you compare it to the one that I post here you will find that they are pretty close to each other. The biggest difference is the inclusion of carrots in mine (the inclusion of vegetables in Kung Pao Chicken is common even if it is not traditional) and the use of a little hoisin sauce in the dish, also common but not traditional. The post is located at AppetiteforChina .

The recipe I demonstrate in the video is pretty much the one that Barbara Fisher gives in her Tigers & Strawberries post Kung Pao Creation Myth. Barbara has some interesting research on the origins and name of the dish, and you certainly want to visit her blog.

I mention in the video that there are several Kung Pao Chicken recipes posted on YouTube. You will find quite a bit of variation in these, and there are only a couple I would consider trying. One of the videos has comments that the chicken has to be deep fried. You will find many versions of Kung Pao Chicken where the chicken is deep fried. This is true of many Chinese dishes, a common method of cooking is to quickly deep fry meat and poultry at a fairly low temperature prior to stir frying. This method changes the texture of the meat somewhat, and is common in Chinese restaurants. You can give this a try, but unless you have a deep fryer at home this is a lot of trouble to go through and it also adds additional fat to the dish. You can make very good stir fries without this step, and many Chinese cookbooks do not include it.

The ingredients for Kung Pao Chicken as demonstrated in the video are:

2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon black rice vinegar
1 teaspoon hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon chicken stock

Mix all of the above together for the sauce

2 boneless skinless chicken breast cut into 1/2 cubes

Marinate the chicken in:

2 teaspoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons dry sherry (or Shaoxing wine)
2 1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch

Marinate about 30 minutes

2 carrots cut into thin slices
2 jalapenos sliced
7-8 dried red chilies
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
sliced fresh ginger, about the same amount as garlic
1 teaspoon toasted, ground Sichuan peppercorns
3 scallions cut into about 1 inch pieces
2/3 cups dry roasted, unsalted peanuts

Oil for stir frying -- peanut oil is traditional, I usually use safflower oil because it has a smoke point similar to peanut oil with less saturated fat.

See the video for how to put this all together