Hi guys!
Kung Pao Chicken (宫保鸡丁 Gong Bao Ji Ding) is one of the most popular Sichuan dish!
Authentic Kung Pao Chicken is made with small diced chicken, lots of dried chili, peanuts and special savory sauces..!
Thank you so much of the recipe requests for Kung Pao Chicken and the recipe is finally here!! As other my stir fry recipes, this one is very quick to make after you chop up all the protein and vegetables.
Chicken breast is classic, but you can use chicken thigh for this recipe if you’d like to. The chili amount is definitely adjustable to your taste. 🙂
Using peanut is classic and authentic but you can also use cashew, almond, any other nuts you prefer or you can just don’t add any if you are not a fan of nuts in your savory dish.
Hope you guys give this recipe a try in your kitchen!! 😀
PrintKung Pao Chicken
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 8 mins
- Total Time: 23 mins
- Yield: 2 to 4 1x
Description
Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 2 boneless/skinless chicken breast, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
- 1 Tbs. shaoxing wine or dry sherry
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp. white pepper
For the Sauce
- 1/2 tsp. dark soy sauce
- 3 Tbs. light soy sauce
- 2 Tbs. black vinegar
- 2 Tbs. sugar
- 1 tsp. cornstarch
- 1 Tbs. shaoxing wine or dry sherry
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
For Stir Fry
- 2 Tbs. cooking oil, divided
- 4 to 6 cloves garlic, chopped (approximately 2 Tbs.)
- 1 oz. ginger root, chopped (approximately 2 Tbs.)
- 10 dried chili, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (approximately 3 Tbs.)
- 1 Tbs. Sichuan peppercorns, toasted and lightly grind
- 4 to 6 green onions, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (approximately 2/3 cup)
- 1/4 cup roasted/unsalted peanuts (substitute to cashew, almond or you can omit)
- 1 tsp. sesame oil (optional)
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients for chicken in a mixing bowl, and marinate for 10 minutes.
- Combine all ingredients for sauce and whisk until sugar’s dissolved, set aside.
- Heat a wok over high heat, add 1 Tbs. cooking oil and marinated chicken. Cook chicken for 2 to 3 minutes or until 3/4 way cooked and browned edges. Remove chicken from heat and set aside.
- Add remaining 1 Tbs. cooking oil into now-empty-wok; stir in garlic, ginger, chili and Sichuan peppercorns and stir fry for 30 seconds to 1 minutes or until you can smell aroma. Pour sauce we made earlier and bring it to boil while keep stirring. (Make sure stir sauce before add into wok, because cornstarch and sugar will settle on bottom.)
- Add chicken back to wok and keep stirring until chicken is evenly coated with sauce and sauce has thicken, about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Stir in green onions and peanuts. Toss and cook everything together for 1 to 2 minutes and remove from heat.
- Transfer to a serving place and drizzle some sesame oil if you like. Serve with warm bowl of cooked rice and other side dishes you’d like to have with. Enjoy!
[yumprint-recipe id=’82’]
22 comments
This is a great recipe minus the Sichuan Peppercorns and Chilies. I made this dish yesterday and the children in my family complained it was too spicy. They said it burned their mouth. Had to throw it out.
I went to the freezer and thawed out a new portion of the chicken and made this dish with the spicy item. The children liked it and wished I made more.
If you are not spice-savvy, avoid the Sichuan peppercorns and chilies and you will be very happy. Believe me, it’s a wonderful dish without the spicy items.
This recipe can be traced back its root to the Sichuan Province in China. It is very Chinese authentic recipe that make use of the Chinese spices, namely, sichuan peppercorns and chili. The local Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles prepare this recipe using less spices. I prefer this recipes with medium spices, but not too spicy.
The best part of home cooking is you can control the heat, seasoning and everything else by your taste! 😀
Tried the recipe as is, and it was REALLY spicy. Please don’t get me wrong, the dish was great as I love spicy food.
but i’ll probably use half the peppercorns and chilli 🙂
Thanks for the great recipe !
A word of extra caution. The Sichuan Peppercorns are of extra spicy and if used in large quantities, can cause a stomach ache. My Sichuan Peppercorns burned both my ends. I recommend that you only use a small pinch of that potent flavoring spice.
Is there a substitute for black vinegar?
You can use Worcestershire sauce instead! 😀
I’ve been using Black Vinegar in pace of Worcestershire. So good.
My suggestion would be to use a mixture of white and balsamic vinegar. Black vinegar is close to balsamic, but not quite as sweet or mild. Blending the two is a close approximation
Hi Seonkyoung, If you could tell us the quantity of chicken in grams or pounds it would be very helpful, I am from India and the chicken we get here is smaller than what you get in USA.
lol ikr?! trust me, the first time when I saw the size of chicken in US, I was like, “that’s regular size chicken?!” lol! It’s about 6 to 8 oz per chicken breast. I use organic chicken, so its smaller than regular chicken than the regular chicken size in US though.
Whats the purpose of using baking soda to marinate the chicken?
Can I substitute tofu for the chicken???
Of course you can!
I love your receipes, this especially because it reminds me a very authentic kung pao chicken i tried in Paris but the mine was too salty I think because of the chicken stock. Can I change it for water?
Of ouches you can change it to water or use reduced sodium chicken stock!
Hi,
Beginner question! Can I assume the peppercorns are used whole?
I love this recipe but don’t have a lot of ingredients sadly…Any recommendations for shaoxing wine substitute?
Shaking wine can be substituted with dry sherry wine, mirin, cooking sake, or even just water if you prefer to not use any alcohol for cooking.
Seonkyoung, you’re KILLING me!!! All that garlic, all that ginger, all those Sichuan peppercorns, and all those chilies!!! ESPECIALLY the chilies! I am in serious spicy heaven! I’m buying chicken breasts today, I already have everything else. Or maybe tofu — do you recommend firm or extra-firm? And I think I heard Jacob recommend jasmine rice — got that, too! THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES!
Made this today and loved it! We put in much less of the dry chilis and peppercorn… it was still spicy but the kids handled it. We will definitely make this again, it satisfied the Chinese food craving but with less oil and chicken breast was so much healthier than takeout.
★★★★★
This is the first time that I ever used Sichuan peppercorns. I dry roasted them and then ground them just like the recipe said to. I do like the taste of them and I like the way they numb your mouth, but I would only use one teaspoon of them instead of a tablespoon next time I make this dish. I used 5 cayenne peppers, not 10, that I grew last summer and had frozen. I de-seeded the cayenne peppers so the dish would not be too HOT to eat. The heat level came out a little too low for me, but just right for my husband. I can bump the heat up by using (drizzling) the hot chile pepper oil that I make. If I make a dish too hot, my husband can have problems with choking. All and all this recipe came out great tasting like it came from a high end Chinese restaurant. I am so grateful to SEONKYOUNG for all the work that it took to share her own recipe for Kung Pao chicken with us.