General Tso's chicken

First time I had this Chicken dish was when I went to visit my sis in Houston, we had gone to this chinese place for a buffet and if I am honest I have never ever seen such a huge buffet, they had so many variety of dishes, I didn't know were to start.

My sister did warn me, that the place will have a lot of dishes but I didn't expect to see so many.

Actually I didn't know what to eat, so I temeber eating loads of those baby fried crabs then some other dishes but I also took this chicken dish as it was written that it is a spicy dish.

So as usual I try to recreate the dish at home as I know Hans and Shyama will love it too.

So I went hunting for recipes on the net and this is what I ended up making using a mix of recipes, taking a bit from one, then a littil bit from another recipe etc....

It is such a yumm dish and not that difficult to make them too.





General Tso's chicken (sometimes Governor Tso's chicken, General Gau's chicken, General Tao's chicken, General Tsao's chicken, General Tang's chicken or simply General's Chicken) is a sweet, slightly spicy, deep-fried chicken dish that is popularly served in North American Chinese restaurants.

The dish was unknown in China and other lands home to the Chinese diaspora before it was introduced by chefs returning from the United States.

 The dish is named after General Tso Tsung-tang, or Zuo Zongtang, a Qing dynasty general and statesman, although the connection is tenuous. He is said to have enjoyed it, and perhaps helped create a dish, but there are no recorded recipes.

The food has been associated with the name of Zuo Zongtang (左宗棠, 1812–1885), a Qing Dynasty general from Hunan.

Zuo himself could not have eaten the dish as it is today, and the dish is neither found in Changsha, the capital of Hunan, nor in Xiangyin, the home of General Tso. Moreover, descendants of General Tso still living in Xiangyin, when interviewed, say that they have never heard of such a dish.

There are several stories concerning the origin of the dish. Eileen Yin-Fei Lo states in her book The Chinese Kitchen that the dish originates from a simple Hunan chicken dish, and that the reference to "Zongtang" was not a reference to Zuo Zongtang's given name, but rather a reference to the homonym "zongtang", meaning "ancestral meeting hall."

Consistent with this interpretation, the dish name is sometimes (but considerably less commonly) found in Chinese as "Zuo ancestral hall chicken

General Tso's Chicken.

Marination.

600 gm Chicken breast cut in bite size pieces

2 tablespoon Soy Sauce

1 egg

2 heap table spoon of corn flour

1 tsp pepper powder

Mix above ingridients in a bowl and set aside foe half hour.

For the Sauce:

350 ml of chicken stock ( We love the sauce and if you want a drier dish add less stock)

2 tbsp of rice vinegar

3 tablespoon tomato paste

2 table spoon of soy sauce

1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce ( if you dodn''t have you can use normal soysauce)

1 tablespoon of Hoisin Sauce

1 heap tablespoon of Sriracha

Mix all the ingridients in a bowl and keep aside.

2 to 3 tablespoon of corn flour mixed with a little water.

1 medium size onion chopped

2 spring onion chopped

1 tablespoon fresh ginger finley chopped

1 tablespoon garlic finley chopped

5 to 6 fresh chillies chopped

1 tablespoon of seasame oil

Oil for deepfrying the chicken, ( Use the oil according how big pan / wok you are using to deep fry the chicken.

2 tablespoon of vegetable oil

Spring onions for garnish.

Heat the oil in a wok for deep frying. When the oil is hot, deep fry the marinated chicken pieces in two batches till they are golden brown , drain to a Kitchen paper and keep it aside.

Heat another wok ( or clean the wok you used for deep frying and then use the same wok) .

Add the 2 tbsp of oil , when the oil is hot add the onions,spring onions,ginger,garlic and chillie and fry for few minutes till they are soft.

Now Pour the Sauce Mix and bring it to boil, boil for few 3 to 4 minutes, add the fried chicken pieces, and thicken up the whole dish with the corn flour mix.

Don't add the whol corn flour mix at once, add three quaters and if the thickness is good then dodn't add the rest. You have to make the chicken dish thick according to your liking.

After adding the corn flour mix, cook for 2 minutes and serve with rice or noodles.
I do have step by step pics but i can't add pics to my blog, the pictures I added was with my flickr account. So will upload the pics later.