Authentic Chinese Cooking 102 - Kung Pao Chicken (Or, You Might Also Need Protective Eyewear)

In some cases, making mistakes can actually turn out better than if you had just done everything correctly.

In the case of me attempting to make my first Chinese dish ... this was definitely NOT the case.

Now, before you go getting the idea that I had no idea what I'm doing ...

I'd say you're probably right.

But still! I had a recipe! Which I followed! And minus my one, small, itsy bitsy, teeny tiny moment of lack of forethought, everything went pretty smoothly. Oh, right, make that two small, itsy bitsy, teeny tiny moments of lack of forethought..

What I made: 宫保鸡丁 (gong bao ji ding - kung pao chicken)
Style: Sichuan (Szechuan)
Main ingredients: Chicken, chilis, scallions, and peanuts
Spice: level (Mine = very spicy; To Chinese people = mild to moderately spicy; To the average American palate = moderate to intensely spicy)

So I made Sichuan style which has peanuts - I've done some research, and many chefs state that this is not genuine at all, that true kung pao chicken shouldn't have ANY nuts. But I can tell you that in the Sichuan restaurants in Beijing, this is how they serve it. And it rocks. Almost every American I've met loves this dish.

I used the recipe that can be found here - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90206117 - but for the sake of readers' convenience, I'll need to repost it anyway.

Okay, here's the recipe, along with my commentary.

2 boneless chicken breasts, with or without skin (about 2/3 pound total)
3 cloves of garlic and an equivalent amount of fresh ginger
5 scallions, white parts only
2 tablespoons peanut oil
a generous handful of dried red chiles (at least 10), preferably Sichuanese
1 teaspoon whole Sichuan pepper
2/3 cup roasted unsalted peanuts

For the marinade:
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon Shaoxing rice wine or medium-dry sherry <-- At the time, I had no idea there was rice wine sitting in my refrigerator. I used dry sherry. No fracases ensued, so I can only assume that this works just as well.
1 1/2 teaspoons potato flour or 2 1/4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon water

For the sauce:
3 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon potato flour or 1 1/8 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
3 teaspoons Chinkiang or black Chinese vinegar <-- I didn't have this, so I had to use regular vinegar. Disaster did occur, but not because of the vinegar and not during this dish. Tune in in a few weeks to read the Bourbon Chicken disaster miracle.

1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon chicken stock or water

1. Cut the chicken as evenly as possible into 1/2-inch strips and then cut these into small cubes. Place in a small bowl and mix in the marinade ingredients.

2. Peel and thinly slice the garlic and ginger, and chop the scallions into chunks as long as their diameter (to match the chicken cubes). Snip the chiles in half or into 2-inch sections. Wearing rubber gloves, discard as many seeds as possible. <-- If you've bothered to read my previous posts, you'll remember this picture.
Remember how I said I had to wrap my fingers with Saran wrap because I didn't get rubber gloves? Yep. At least I didn't touch my eyes, but it was REALLY difficult to get those little buggers out of those peppers. Sometimes you can just cut the pepper in half and dump the seeds out, but most of the time I had to poke and prod at the damn pepper with the tip of my knife, all the while the Saran wrap on my fingers was either getting in the way, leaving my fingertips devoid of feeling and causing me to stab myself, or unwrapping and making me feel like the clumsiest person on earth.



3. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl — if you dip your finger in, you can taste the sweet-sour base of the gong bao flavor.

4. Season the wok, (I have no idea what this means. I just put in the oil)then add 2 tablespoons of oil and heat over a high flame. When the oil is hot but not yet smoking, add the chiles and Sichuan pepper and stir-fry briefly until they are crisp and the oil is spicy and fragrant. Take care not to burn the spices (you can remove the wok from the heat if necessary to prevent overheating). YOU MIGHT ALSO NEED PROTECTIVE EYE WEAR! AND A NURSE'S MASK! *Sigh* Okay. I probably burned the chilies and the pepper. I couldn't really tell - except for the BURNING, DYING sensation in my eyes and lungs! The room got really smoky VERY quickly and the oil in the air from the chilies irritated my eyes, which started to tear up, and the smoke severely bothered my lungs. I definitely sounded like I had tuberculosis, whatwith all the coughing and hacking I did there in the kitchen. I had to ask my roommates to come help me finish cooking because I couldn't stand over the wok anymore. Which, btw, they were not happy about..

5. Quickly add the chicken and fry over a high flame, stirring constantly. As soon as the chicken cubes have separated, add the ginger, garlic, and scallions and continue to stir-fry for a few minutes until they are fragrant and the meat is cooked through (test one of the larger pieces to make sure). This part went just fine. However, my next unfortunate moment came when I added a pre-made, pre-seasoned jar of kung pao chicken sauce with peanuts to the dish. I was so afraid that the taste wouldn't be authentic that I not only made my own spicy sauce, but then added some Chinese (translation: spicy as hell) sauce to the dish. 

6. Give the sauce a stir and add it to the wok, continuing to stir and toss. As soon as the sauce has become thick and shiny, add the peanuts, stir them in, and serve. Ladies and gentlemen, the people I was cooking for, namely the same roommates that had to save me from the pepper fiasco, were sweating at the table as we ate. I kid you not. Delicious, it was. Spicy as hell, also it was. (Yes, that was Yoda speak) So.. don't do that. If you are going to add an already-spicy sauce to the dish, don't think you'll maintain the spice by adding more even if you are making more sauce to go with it. That totally didn't work and while we all LOVED the dish, I think we went through 3 or 4 glasses of water each at the dinner table (we were out of milk, if my memory serves me correctly).

So, still successful, and this recipe is actually a GREAT one. Just ease up on the chilies and the Sichuan pepper if you don't like spicy foods (I love them, so I actually adored the dish the way it was, but yes, my roomies were sweating) or can't handle serious spice. But then again, I doubt you'll all make the mistake of adding Chinese sauce to your dishes. So you should be find.