🍗 General Tso's chicken

Name: General Tso's chicken
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: United States · Chinese-American
Ingredients: 600 g boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces; 60 g cornstarch, plus 1 tsp for the sauce; 3 tbsp soy sauce; 3 tbsp sugar; 6–8 dried red chillies; 3 garlic cloves and 1 tbsp ginger, minced; 2 tbsp vinegar, oil for frying

Origin: United States · Chinese-American

810kcal

per serving · 300 g

270kcal

per 100 g

45 gProtein15 g / 100 g

36 gFat12 g / 100 g

72 gCarbs24 g / 100 g

General Tso's chicken is a Chinese-American dish of bite-sized chicken pieces coated in cornstarch, deep-fried until crisp and tossed in a glossy sweet, spicy and savoury sauce of soy sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger and dried chillies. It is crunchy outside and juicy inside. It is served hot, usually with steamed rice.

Diets

✓

No porkfor halal, the meat must be halal-slaughtered

✓

Dairy-freeno milk, cheese, butter or yogurt in a typical recipe

Not vegetarianbecause of: chicken

Not veganbecause of: chicken

Contains glutenbecause of: soy sauce

Not keto24 g carbs per 100 g

Allergens

Contains (in a typical recipe):

⚠ Gluten ⚠ Soy

What it is made of

chickensoy saucesugarchili peppergarlicgingercornstarch

Recipe

4 servings40 min

Ingredients

600 g boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
60 g cornstarch, plus 1 tsp for the sauce
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sugar
6–8 dried red chillies
3 garlic cloves and 1 tbsp ginger, minced
2 tbsp vinegar, oil for frying

Method

Toss the chicken with 1 tbsp soy sauce, then coat well in cornstarch.
Deep-fry in oil at 175 °C in batches for 5–6 minutes until crisp and golden; drain.
Mix the remaining soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, 1 tsp cornstarch and 100 ml water.
In a wok with 1 tbsp oil, fry the chillies, garlic and ginger for 30 seconds.
Pour in the sauce, simmer until glossy, then toss in the chicken and serve at once.

How to make it lighter

Air-fry or bake the coated chicken at 200 °C instead of deep-frying to cut the oil a lot.
Halve the sugar in the sauce and use more chilli and vinegar for flavour.
Serve with plenty of steamed broccoli and a smaller portion of chicken.

History

The dish is usually credited to Hunanese chef Peng Chang-kuei, who created a version in Taiwan in the 1950s and named it after the 19th-century general Zuo Zongtang. Sweeter adaptations made it one of the best-known dishes in American Chinese restaurants from the 1970s.

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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →