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General Tso’s Chicken Recipe
Ingredients:
10 oz boneless skinless chicken meat (thigh or breast), cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup cornstarch
Oil for deep frying
1 1/2 tablespoons oil
3 slices peeled ginger, finely minced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
4-5 dried red chiles, rinsed and deseeded
2 stalks scallion, white-part only, cut into 1-inch lengths
Sauce:
2 1/2 – 3 tablespoons Chinese rice vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon Hoisin sauce
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon Shaoxing Wine
1 scant tablespoon corn starch
Method:
Marinate the chicken meat with the Shaoxing wine and salt for 15 minutes. Mix all the ingredients for the Sauce in a small bowl. Set aside.
Coat the chicken generously with the 1/3 cup cornstarch. Heat up the oil for deep-frying. Deep fry the chicken until they turn light brown. Dish out with a strainer, draining the excess oil by laying the chicken on a dish lined with paper towels.
Heat up a wok with 1 1/2 tablespoons oil. Add the minced ginger, garlic, and dried chilies into the wok, stir-fry until you smell the spicy aroma of the chilies. Pour the sauce into the wok. When the sauce boils and thickens, add the chicken, stir to combine well with the sauce. Add the scallion and stir a few times, dish out and serve immediately.
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I love the general tso’s chicken. Can I use rice wine vinegar for the recipe? I don’t have chinese rice vinegar.
Hi Kara,
I used rice wine vinegar and I only cooked this once so I couldn’t make any comparison yet, I thought it tasted good sweeter than general tso from chinese restaurant.
The Chinese rice vinegar is very sour, so the sugar is to balance off the sourness. Rice wine vinegar is not as sharp in taste. You can reduce the sugar next time.
The ingredient list calls for chicken, but the recipe says shrimp? Is this interchangeable?
Hi Manda, sorry, it was a typo, chicken not shrimp.
Awesome! I was just wondering how to make this dish as I can’t remember how it tastes like…thanks so much for the recipe! Looks great!
*stomach rumbles*
Looks great!
This looks so yummy!! Would it be a huge difference if I left out the wine (we don’t consume alcohol) and substituted regular soya sauce for the dark?
I’ve never eaten US-Chinese I don’t think so I’m not sure about General Tso’s Chicken. From the looks of the picture and the ingredients list though I’d say it’s closer to Gong Bao Chicken here in China. (Kung Pao Chicken to you Cantonese folks)
Darryl – yes, US-Chinese food tastes quite similar. For Kung Pao Chicken, I use black vinegar, peanuts, and a lot more dried red chilies, no Hoisin sauce and not as sweet.
This recipe really looks great! We have had this dish in Singapore and Hong Kong and really tastes great! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Why have you used two kinds of soy sauce? Is it ok if I don’t use the dark soy sauce and add some extra normal soy instead?
Prerna – the dark soy sauce is mostly for coloring purposes and add a “deeper” flavor. You don’t have to use the dark soy sauce if you don’t have it, but add slightly more soy sauce. Mix the sauce, taste it and adjust to your liking. If you like sweeter, add more sugar. :)
I did it tonight. It’s so easy except that my partner got me extremely fat chicken thigh. I spent 20 minutes trimming as much fat as possible.
It tastes really good. Thanks for another easy and tasty recipe.
Wow, Jules, you are fast. I am so happy that you tried the General Tso’s Chicken recipe and thought it was good. Thank you! :)
This is one of my guilty pleasures to try out in restaurants. I can’t wait to try this recipe, even if it might ruin me on eating it in restaurants like your Kung Pao recipe (not necessarily a bad thing)!
I don’t usually have dark soy sauce on hand. I know it would make it sweeter, but would using kecap manis instead change the flavor in any other way?
Amanda – no, go ahead and use kecap manis if you like, and yes it will be sweeter but I am sure it will taste good. :)
Looks absolutely appetising!
The dish was named after 19th century Chinese General Tso Tsung-T’ang and was invented in the 1950′s by a Chinese refugee from China’s Civil war for his restaurant in 44th Street, New York. There are more Chinese restaurants (46,000) than the total of MacDonalds, Wendy’s, Burger King, Domino’s and Pizza Hut combined in the United States.
The origin of General Tso’s chicken is actually from a Chinese American in New York.
Information from “Did You Know” by Toyota in Yahoo.
General Tso’s Chicken is my husbands favorite asian dish. I can’t wait to give this a try! :)
Hooray! Love this!!! Will be making soon…thanks for sharing it Bee :) Your photos are making me drool!
Hi,Rasa..Is there any substitute for shaoxing wine??..coz it maybe hard to fine it back home..
You can skip it if you don’t have it, or you can use rice wine.
Tried this last night ~ Delicious!! Stir fried the chx instead of deep fry for obvious health reasons. Thanks for your great recipes!!!
I tried making this last week, and though it was good, it didn’t really taste like any General Tso’s chicken I’d ever had. Tasted mostly like Hoisin sauce, though I only used the single tablespoon the recipe called for. When you call for “Chinese rice vinegar,” what exactly are you talking about? Are you talking about black vinegar, or brown rice vinegar, or unseasoned rice vinegar? I used brown rice vinegar as it had the highest acidity among the rice vinegars in my pantry, but it was definitely lacking some tang. Most other recipes I’ve seen for it also include a good amount of dry sherry (or white wine) and more sour vinegars, like sherry vinegar or even white vinegar.
Chinese rice vinegar is Chinese “white” vinegar that is clear and very sour. I haven’t used brown rice vinegar so I don’t know.
I agree with Jeremy. Made it last week and the taste was good but it wasn’t like the General Tso chicken I remember and crave (I live in Europe now, and it’s nowhere to be found). The hoisin flavour was too strong and it wasn’t sweet enough.
Found the chinese rice vinegar in a Chinese shop here without problems so that wasn’t an issue.
Do you have any further suggestions?
I made this a while ago and the taste was exactly like what I had at the Chinese restaurants here. I might have jotted down the hoisin sauce quantity wrongly. I have updated the recipe.
Thanks. Will try again in a while and will let you know!
Man! does this look great. I moved out of the US to the Philippines over two years ago. I had been going back and forth between the US and the Philippines for about three years before moving there permanently. I knew there would be many differences I would have to become accustom to or at least adjust to. Food was one of my biggest worries. I don’t mean to offend anyone but I hate Filipino food! 99% of everything I have eaten here out right discuss me. I am older now so my wife does most of the cooking. She ends up cooking Filipino food for her and the maid and something I can eat.
On the other hand I love many Chinese foods. It’s one of the things I miss most about the US when it comes to food. I was so surprised that with so many Chinese living here in the Philippines and most living here for probably hundreds of years but you can’t find Chinese food as us American’s know it or as I have read about in China. The Chinese/Filipinos eat Filipino food. Some looks somewhat like the Chinese recipes we know but taste nothing like them.
Up into just a few years ago you would have had a difficult time finding the ingredients for the recipe above. Now that there are many new imported products and a larger verity of vegetables in the market, we may be able to make some of your delicious looking meals.
I was wondering if you have been to the Philippines (Davao City) in particular and know of pre-prepared Chinese food such as we have in the US or China?
I love General Tso – The sauce when right is sweet tangy and with a bite of spice. I don’t have easy access to Asian markets, so I rely on the limited asian sections at the grocers. I use a substitute mixture rice vinegar and cooking wine. The results aren’t bad.
OMG! This looks delicious!! I’m gonna have to give this a try. LOVE your blog. It never ceases to amaze me! Hehe thanks for all your hard work :) I’ll be back to tell you how it went!
I made this for CNY 2012.. and my family love it.. Thanks for the recipe.. 谢谢~