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Featured Recipe: General Tso’s Chicken

By March 20, 2024March 24th, 2024Savory Recipes, Savory Recipes - Entrees
General Tso Chicken recipe

This is a truly mouth-watering dish (and MSG dish!) with an Oriental-flavor kick. Make it your own (some tips listed below) and your dinner guests will be very impressed. The flavor is fantastic, rivaling any found at your local Chinese restaurant. Chopsticks optional!

To accompany the General Tso’s Chicken, try steamed snow peas or steamed broccoli and serve with white rice. This dish is also sometimes spelled as General Tsao’s Chicken. And in case you’re wondering “who was General Tso (or Tsao)?”… apparently he was a highly respected soldier, a Qing Dynasty general from the Hunan region. Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, descendants of General Tso (Tsao) still living in this region have never heard of such a dish!

General Tso's (or Tsao's) Chicken

Course Main Course
Cuisine Chinese
Servings 6

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
  • 1 1/2 tsp. minced fresh ginger root or use ground ginger
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup hot chicken broth
  • 1 tsp. MSG
  • 3 lb. skinless boneless chicken breast halves cut into bite size pieces
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1 tsp. ground white pepper
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup cornstarch
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 cups green onions chopped
  • 16 chile peppers sun-dried (or use 1 tsp. red pepper flakes or chili flakes)

Instructions

  1. To Make Sauce: In a large bowl combine 1/2 cup cornstarch and 1/4 cup water. Mix together. Add garlic, ginger, sugar, 1/4 cup soy sauce and white wine vinegar. Then add chicken broth and monosodium glutamate and stir all together until sugar dissolves. Refrigerate until needed.  Tip: you may want to start with 1/4 cup cornstarch and check the consistency after adding the other sauce ingredients (and you can then always add more cornstarch if the sauce is too watery).

  2. To Prepare Chicken: In a separate bowl, combine chicken, 1/2 cup soy sauce and white pepper. Stir in egg. Add 1 cup cornstarch and stir until chicken is evenly coated. Add oil to help separate chicken pieces. Divide chicken into small quantities and deep fry at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) (or can be sautéed in vegetable oil or peanut oil if you prefer not to deep-fry) until crispy. Drain on paper towels.
  3. To Make Mixture: Place a small amount of oil in wok and heat until wok is hot. Add scallions and dried chile peppers and stir-fry briefly. Remove sauce from refrigerator and stir. Add sauce to wok. Then add fried chicken and cook un

Recipe Notes

Recipe courtesy of Allrecipes.com

Recipe courtesy of Flickr user LexnGer: https://flic.kr/p/kidvb 

The MSGdish Team's goal is to provide timely and important information about glutamate, monosodium glutamate (MSG) and the many culinary creations inspired by “umami" while connecting these topics to facts about food, taste, and health. The MSGdish Team is comprised of TGA staff professionals who are recognized as experts in science-based nutrition communications. Read more on the About page.

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