Kung Pao Chicken

Name: Kung Pao Chicken
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon sugar; 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped; 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar; 2 tablespoons vegetable oil; 4 to 5 scallions, thinly sliced; 1 (1-inch/2.5-centimeter) ginger, grated or roughly chopped; 1 pound/450 grams boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into strips; 4 to 6 whole dried chiles (optional); 2 teaspoons cornstarch whisked into 2 teaspoons water (optional); 2 celery ribs, cut on the bias into ½-inch/1-centimeter slices; 1 (8-ounce/225-gram) can water chestnuts, drained and cut into medium dice; 8 to 10 shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced; 1 tablespoon soy sauce; 1 tablespoon chili sauce with garlic; 2 tablespoons black bean sauce; ¾ cup/150 grams unsalted peanuts; 1 tablespoon dry sherry or Shaoxing wine; Steamed jasmine rice, for serving; 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

From Scratch

By Michael Ruhlman

Published 2019

About

A staple of my teenage and college years was kung pao chicken from what was, at the time, one of the authoritative books on Chinese cookery, The Chinese Cookbook, by Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee. The base combination of bean sauce, hoisin sauce, and chili sauce with garlic has been a stalwart main

Ingredients

Asia
China
Main course

Ingredients

Method