General Tso's Chicken 左宗堂雞

General Tso's chicken is a favorite dish of Americans. It is ordered a lot in many Chinese-American restaurants. I think that it has to do with the love of fried food and a goopy gravy-like sauce.

Fuschia Dunlop recently did research on the origins of General Tso's chicken. It was reprinted in the NY Times. I made the recipe last night and I was very disappointed. The taste wasn't what I was expecting at all and even Ming didn't like it -- and he's very forgiving when it comes to food. Many people have raved about the recipe so it was doubly disappointing to discover that it's not something I care for at all. The flavor was very sour and, for lack of a better descriptive word, the gravy lacked soul. There wasn't any body nor depth to the gravy; it was primarily sour and hot. It was missing something crucial. I know that this recipe was the original but, in this case, I think that some tweaking of it would most definitely benefit the diners. I made this recipe exactly as stated, something I rarely do with Chinese recipes, and I think that I would have been better off doing my normal a little of this and little of that.

I have made General Tso's chicken in the past and I much prefer that taste over this one from Fushia Dunlop's original version. I use a recipe from Food Down Under but I've tweaked it.

My General Tso's Chicken
Ingredients :
4 Chicken legs, skinned & cut
2 Egg whites
2t Cornstarch
1 T rice vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1 T shao xing wine
2 t Sugar
1 t Cornstarch, mixed with water
Peanut oil for frying
3 Dried red chili peppers
1 Scallion, chopped (separate & green parts)
Knob fresh ginger, minced
1 Garlic clove, minced
2 t Sesame oil
1 piece dried orange peel
1 T oyster sauce

Vigorously blend egg whites and cornstarch; add chicken pieces and toss to coat. Heat oil in large wok and add chicken pieces in batches, cooking each until golden, about 3 minutes, then drain.

Pour off all but 1 TB of hot oil from wok. Add peppers and stir-fry for 15 seconds; add green scallion, minced ginger and garlic and stir-fry for 15 more seconds. Add mixture of vinegar , soy, wine, sugar, oyster sauce, and orange peel stirring until heated through. Add cornstarch and water mixture and stir until mixture is thickened. Off heat, stir in sesame oil, garnish with scallion greens, and serve.