Kung Pao Chicken

There are some blog s you visit once and then you would be there for hours and hours looking to all the delicious recipes and pictures and then you realize that you go to that blog so many times.

The blog Rasa Malaysia from Bee is one of those blogs I go often I visit from the time I knew about it.

So a year ago when she wrote in her place if bloggers want to test the recipe for her upcomming book I jumbed at teh chance.
So she send me the recipe for a mango pudding, and I had to test it and tell her what I thought about it etc.... I made the dessert and my family loved it.
So when I heard the book was out there to buy, I preordered it and two weeks back I was delighted when I received the book.

I must say It didn't disapoint me at all.

For each recipe there is a beautiful picture. I love buying cooking books with photos as I know how the end result looks like don't you ??

If I could I would have made all the recipes in one go as all of them looks so so good and delicious.
But alas my expanding waist line doesn't allow me to do that :-) so I thought why not start with one.
And that is exactly what I did two days back.
One of the best thing about buying the book is that she shared this super clever tip how to tenderize the meat.
Oh boy and I have to say I have been cooking for years chinese dishes but my chicken/Meat as never been so so melt in your mouth by using this technique.

I would say you like to cook Chinese food then this book is a must have book.
Yhe aroma whe I made the schiuan pepper oil is so so good. That I have been sniffing for 2 hour :-)

It is a spicy dish and this is what Bee has written in her book when she had the first taste of authentic Kung pao chicken- explosivley fiery, numbing, with a strong vinegary note. Oh and I totally agree with it.
And this is one dish which is going to appear in my dinner table very often.



Now to the recipe:
8 oz (250 g) skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite size cubes
1 tsp Chinese rice wine or sherry
1 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp Sichuan Pepercorn oil ( recipe below)

1 clove garlic thinly sliced
One 1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
10 to 15 dried red finger length chiliies, deseeded and cut into 2 inch lentghs.
3 heaping tbsp of roasted peanut
1 green onion ( scallion) trimmed and cut into small rounds

Sauce
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese black vinegar ( I didn't have so i used cider vinegar)
1/2 tsp rice wine or sherry
1 tsp sugar
3 dashes of white pepper
2 tbsp of water
1 tsp cornstarch

Treat the chicken according see below: This is an optional step, but please do your chicken will be so yumm.

Marinate the chicken with the rice wine or sherry and cornstarch for 10 minutes.

Mix all the ingridients for the sauce in a small bowl , set aside.

Heat 1/2 tbsp of the oil  in a wok over hight heat and stir fry the marinated chicken pieces untilly they are half cooked or the surface turns opaque. Dish out and set aside.

Heat the remaining oil and the sichuam pepper oil in the wok. Add the garlic and ginger and stir quickly with the spatula bfore adding the dried chillies. Stir fry untill you smell the spicy aroma of the fried chillies.

Return the chicken to the wok and stir quickly with teh spatula.
Add the sauce and stir continiously untill the chicken meat is nicley coated with it.

Stir in the roasted peanuts and green onions, combining them throughly with the ingridients in the wok.
Dish out and serve immediately with steamed rice.
How to Tenderrize the meat :
250 gm chicken breast
1 tsp baking soda ( soda bi carbonate)
1. Cut or slice the chicken breast per the recipe instruction. Make sure it is cut or sliced into uniform pieces.
2. Mix the baking soda with the chicken.
Make sure the chicken breast is evenly coated with the baking soda. Set aside for 15 minutes.
3. Place the chicken in a colander and rinse throughly with cold running water. Rinse a few times if desired. (I did that ).
Pat dry with paper towels. The chicken is now ready to use according to teh recipe.

Sichuan¨Peppercorn oil.
Makes 1/3 cup (80 ml )

1/4 cup ( 10 g ) sichuan peppercorns
1/2 cup ( 125 ml ) oil.
Place the sichuam pepercorns in a small bowl.
Heat the oil in a wok or skillet over high heat untill it reaches the smoking point.
The oil is ready when you see a swril of white smoke comming out from it.
Add the oil into the sichuan peppercorns. Stir the sichuam peppercorn oil immidieatley to help to relese their aroma and flavour.
Let it cool for atleast 2 hours to devolope the flavour.
Drain the peppercorn oil into a glass jar. Discard the peppercorns. The oil is now ready to use.

I do have step by step pictures but I was so excited to share this dish with you all that I didn't wanted to wait.