What is General Tso’s Chicken?
General Tso Chicken is that perfect combination of sweet, savoury, spicy and tangy with crispy Chinese chicken bites. It’s a Chinese takeout favourite that just pushes all the right buttons!
This is a popular Chinese-American dish that appears in suburban Chinese restaurants. Peking-Style Chicken or sometimes something mysteriously titled House Special Crispy Chicken.
It is said to originate from the Hunan province of China and is named after a well-respected Chinese military leader, General Tso.
While the accuracy of either of these statements is questionable – and in fact, rumour has it that it was brought into the US by Taiwanese Chefs (!) – what we do know is that this is one of the most popular Chinese dishes in America and it’s not hard to understand why.
Crispy chicken. Sticky, spicy, savoury sauce. All good stuff we like here at Stur fry box
How to Make General Tso’s Chicken?
There’s 3 parts to making General Tso Chicken. The Marinade, Crispy Chicken and Stir Fry.
The marinade – one single mixture does double duty to marinate the chicken and to make the sticky sauce that coats the chicken.
The Crispy Chicken – tossed in cornflour/cornstarch then fried in as little or as much oil.
Stir Fry – it’s not really a stir fry dish, but we do sauté garlic and ginger at the end before making the sticky sauce to toss the chicken in.