Name: Gong bao chicken
Yield: Serves 2
Cuisine: China
Ingredients: 1½ teaspoons potato flour; 2 teaspoons light soy sauce; 1½ tablespoons Sichuan peppercorns; 5 teaspoons light soy sauce; 70 g/2½ oz cashew nuts; 3 teaspoons sesame oil; 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce; 2 teaspoons Shaoxing rice wine; 600 g/1 lb 5 oz chicken breast, cut into small cubes; 2 tablespoons groundnut oil; steamed rice, to serve; 7 spring onions, white parts only, cut on a diagonal; 5 cm/2 inch piece of root ginger, thinly sliced using a vegetable peeler; 6 teaspoons black Chinese vinegar; 1 teaspoon caster sugar; 4 clove garlic, thinly sliced; 6–30 Sichuan dried chillies; 3 tablespoons chicken stock; 2 teaspoons rice vinegar

Preparation info

Serves
2

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Let's Eat

By Tom Parker Bowles

Published 2013

About

This Sichuan dish is better known, in the States at least, as kung pao chicken. But the versions I’ve tried are pretty drab, relying on peanuts and peppers rather than the elegant balance of ingredients that characterises the original. The key is to chop the chicken into similar-sized small cubes, so it cooks quickly and evenly.