General Tso’s Chicken

I don’t really know much about ole General Tso but I do  know this is one of my husband’s favorite dishes to order when we go out for Chinese. I saw the technique for “breading” the chicken in a magazine a while back and it worked perfectly for this recipe.

And yes… we do a lot of stir fry around here if you haven’t noticed!! It’s a great way to get a bunch of veggies into a meal and it’s quick and easy… so there!

I started with a couple of chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces. I did this a couple hours before dinner which is why they are in a bow all neat and tidy 🙂

Next I gathered some veggies. I did some diagonally cut carrots, red and yellow bell peppers and some sugar snap peas. I threw them all in a big shiny bowl. Your bowl doesn’t have to be shiny…

Next I sliced up a few cloves of garlic. While I was doing this I was thinking I should have bought some ginger at the store the other day… I never remember to buy it but always wish I had it on hand for such dishes… you should buy some 🙂

Oh… and then came the red onions… why aren’t they called purple onions??? Regardless I LOVE red onions. I love their color, their flavor… I just love being near them 🙂

Next I mixed about 3/4 cup cold water with a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch. I mixed it until smooth… this is called a slurry… fun fact!!

I poured the slurry over the veggies

Next came a heaping tablespoon of brown sugar…

and about an equal amount of honey…

Then a couple tablespoons of soy sauce. I gave this all a good stir to let it marinate for a while. If you were to order this dish in a restaurant it’s usually a bit spicy. Our kids don’t do spicy yet but you could sure add some red pepper flakes, chili paste, chili sauce or even a few dashes of hot sauce here to give it a kick!

BTW… here is the soy sauce I use… terrible picture I know… It’s gluten free and it’s pretty easy to find in most chain grocery stores. I sneak the bottle into our favorite sushi place. I haven’t gotten caught yet 🙂 I love sushi.

On to the chicken. Take a shallow dish and drop in 2 egg whites. If you leave the yolks out you will make this dish a little on the lighter side… which comes in handy if you’re going to serve it over not-light-at-all fried rice… like I’m going to 🙂 Add in 1/4 cornstarch…

Season with salt and pepper and then whisk together until completely combined.

It will look like this…

You also should have heated a pan with some oil over med-high heat in there somewhere… OK, add about 1/2 of your chicken to the “breading” mix and toss to coat. Take it out and let the excess drip off.

Drop into your hot skillet. It won’t take the chicken long to cook. Turn it a couple times to brown on all sides.

It will start to look like this. After the first batch is done move it to a plate while you bread and cook the second half of the chicken.

Soon you will have a plate of chicken like this… yumm….

Keep the heat under your pan and toss in your veggies and all the liquid from the bowl. Oh goodness… isn’t this beautiful!! Fresh produce is so appetizing!! Pop a lid on this for just a few minutes…

You will open to find your veggies starting to soften but not mushy and your sauce thickened to perfection! So easy!!

Next I dumped the chicken back into the pan and tossed to cover it with the sauce…

Like I said… I broke out the fried rice for this one. It’s at least fried brown rice… that makes me feel a little better 🙂

And so does this heaping pile of crispy veggies and chicken coated in an amazingly sweet and syrupy sauce!! My husband and I hardly talked through this meal… we were busy eating 🙂 It was a hit and you should try it!!

and a close up just to make you even more hungry…