#16 General Tso's Chicken

My family and I are always venturing out to try new international cuisine. The Metro area is a melting pot of all cultures and offers us so many options - Greek, French, Chinese, Italian, Lebanese, Ethiopian and anything else new......
I love asian and even though my east asian friends have given me fair warning of monosodium glutamate and deep fried foods used to enhance the taste of Asian food, I am still a frequent visitor of Asian restaurants for lunch. So last month, I tried to make this General Tso's chicken and it turned out to be a much lighter version. The versatility of the Wok makes it so universally popular in most Asian kitchens, and this recipe calls for fried boneless chicken served with whole dried red peppers in a sweet-spicy sauce. This is not an authentic Chinese dish, however it is considered one of the popular dishes in Chinese Restaurants. It is
said to have been discovered by Taiwanese immigrants who came to the US in the 1970s and named the dish after General Zou Zong-Tang-- a general of the Qing Dynasty of China.




 
Ingredients:
Boneless chicken breast-1 cut into cubes
Soy sauce-2 tspn
vinegar- 2 tspn
Hoisin sauce-1 tblspn
Cornstarch- 1 Tblspn
egg-1
Sesame Oil- 1 tspn
Dried red chillies-2-3
Orange peel -4 thinly sliced pieces
Ginger- 2 inch piece sliced very thin(fry a tspn and use as garnish)
Garlic- 4 cloves sliced thin
Sriracha or any chilli sauce- 1 tspn
Salt, black pepper, sugar for taste and Oil for pan frying.
Scallions- 1stalk

Method:
1. Prepare marinade using 1 tspn vinegar, 1/2 tspn soy sauce, salt, black pepper, cornstarch and egg.
2. Marinate the chicken overnight in the fridge.
3. When ready to eat, keep a skillet on stove and add 1/2 cup of  Corn Oil and heat.
4. Very carefully add the marinated chicken pieces to the skillet and pan fry all the pieces until cooked.
5. Remove and drain the chicken. Remove the skillet from fire.
6. Place a wok on the fire and add 2 Tblspn of the oil from the skillet.
7. Add the Dried red chillies and when they let out aroma add the Orange Peel, ginger, garlic. Stir for one minute and turn off the fire.
8. Now, add the rest of the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, Hoisin sauce and the chilli sauce and mix very well. Now add the chiken and serve immediately with any type of sauted greens and steamed rice. Garnich with fried julienned ginger and scallions.

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.  ~Judy Garland