Kung Pao Chicken

HELLO AGAIN :).

Like I've said in the post before the previous one, we are going to explore the Chinese food culture in regards to its geographic location. And so today, we are going to be making one of the most unique Chinese flavours in Sichuan province! The Sichuan province is now for its spices and its famous numbing chili peppers. Sichuan is rather humid in climate, so he Chinese people there would eat (a lot of different types of) chili peppers to help cope with that. And gradually a practice became a tradition, which led to what we now call Sichuan cuisine. Although the main ingredient that makes Sichuan cuisine so special is the sichuan peppers that makes your tongue and lips numb after a while, today we are not going to use this ingredient....YET! But if you want to try this spice, stay tuned for tomorrow's dish, in which we WILL be experiencing this "numbing heat" :). 

As the title states, today we are going to make kung pao chicken! This dish is generally an American favourite and it is always available in ANY Chinese restaurant in the United States. But how do you make this delicious dish that everyone orders? Well, I'm about to reveal to you the recipe! Here is a list of ingredients you would need for this dish:

• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. black or red rice vinegar, or red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp. chicken broth or water
• 3 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• a few drops of sesame oil
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 2 cloves of garlic (minced)

There are two ways of making kung pao chicken: stir fry and deep fry. I personally like the stir fry and that is what we did! So first we cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and lightly cooked them in sizzling oil. Once the chicken appears to be slightly golden, take it out and place it on the plate for later use. Now you see all the ingredients listed above, take everything EXCEPT the minced garlic and mix them together; this would be our sauce that we are going to stir fry the chicken with. Now that everything is mixed, we can finally put everything together. Put the minced garlic in the wok and let it heat up; add in the sauce, when you can kind of see the sauce sizzling, throw in the chicken. You shouldn't need to cook the chicken for too long as it is already cooked. You are now just adding flavour to the chicken. 

If you are feelin' adventurous, then feel free to throw in some dried chili peppers! Don't put too much or else you would catch on fireeeee!! Well not really, but you know what I mean haah! Well ladies and gents, you know have your very own homemade kung pao chicken! It isn't really hard is it? Just be careful you don't want to overcook the chicken!

So my thoughts on this dish. I would give it a....6 out of 10 for today's performance. The chicken was very dry and it was very difficult to chew. Even so, the flavouring was very savory! So I would definitely give our sauce a 10/10! Next time when we make this dish, I would cut the chicken into slightly bigger pieces. Although the ones we had were bite sized pieces, but they were way too thin. And because have to put the chicken on heat twice for this recipe, perhaps a bite sized cubed chicken would probably be the best description when it comes to cutting. I think this would help with the dryness. By doing this it would also make the dish more authentic as the Chinese usually speak of the tenderness of the meat. 

Surprisingly, our family has never made this dish...at least not that I can think of. My mother is a health freak. Everything in our kitchen is organic and nutritious. So the thought of deep frying doesn't even exist in our family. Usually, we would steam the chicken, or stir frying it (without deep frying first). The chicken we used today is chicken breast, but real Chinese people hate, yes hate, chicken breasts of any kind. But Western people loves it! So that's a difference there. The best meat is the located near a bone. For those steak lovers, why is the T-bone steak the best? Because all the fat from the bone leaks into the meat, making it so sumptuous! Same idea with chicken also! Anyway, I hope you guys have a great time cooking this dish! Be careful not to overcook your chicken like we did!

Thank you for reading and if you are interested in tofu and Chinese 'numbing heat," come back tomorrow for another Sichuan cuisine!

Evann