Kung Pao Chicken

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