General Tso Chicken

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Back in college, my cousin and I would zip across the street to a little hole-in-the-wall Halal Chinese restaurant between classes. This place was good and cheap, the two most important things for any college student. My favorite was the General Tso chicken and would order the same thing each and every single time I went there.

The restaurant has long closed down and I've moved far away, but oh how I have missed those crunchy chunks of chicken coated in that sweet sauce. Since Halal Chinese restaurants are so hard to come by (at least in my neck of the woods) I've had to accept either bottled sauce versions, complete with their deathly amounts of HFCS and sodium, or vegan/vegetarian versions and well, I'll just say that General Tso chicken was meant to be made with chicken.

So I got to work looking up different recipes and reviews. I wasn't happy with a sauce recipe that contained only hoisin and sugar, or soy sauce and honey. I needed some more balance of flavors than that. And the coating of the chicken was probably the most important part of the whole dish; it needs to be crispy  and crunchy, but not in a chicken finger sort of way. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Cooks Illustrated had the answer to my General Tso dreams, and also not surprised that it was a bit of a lengthy process as per the Cooks Illustrated tradition (or so it seems). But don't get intimidated by the list of ingredients and multi-step process, some times it takes a few extra steps to get that authentic flavor you can't find out of a bottle. So in conclusion, this isn't a quick meal to whip-up on a weeknight while the kids are whining for dinner but rather something you can spend some time on for an occasional treat. And you can trust that it'd be worth every minute insha'allah!

Though this recipe doesn't come close to recreating the laughter and good times with my dear cousin, as far as taste goes, it's even better. This one's for you S, I love you, chica!

General Tso Chicken
(taken from Cook's Illustrated)

Ingredients for marinade:

1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup white vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes

Ingredients for coating & frying:

3 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups cornstarch
1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups vegetable oil
1-2 green onions, thinly sliced on a bias for garnish

Directions: 

1. Prep the chicken breasts by cutting them into 1 inch pieces.

2. To make the marinade & sauce, whisk the hoisin, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, and water in a bowl. Of this mixture, place 6 tablespoons into a zip lock storage bag and add the chicken; seal and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Set aside the remaining marinade in the bowl.

3. While the chicken is chilling in the marinade, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Sauté the garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes until fragrant. Add 2 cups of the hoisin marinade to the skillet and simmer, whisking constantly, until the mixture is dark brown and thickened.Remove the pan from heat, cover to keep the sauce warm.

4. To prepare the chicken coating and frying, whisk the egg whites in a shallow dish until foamy; set aside. Combine the cornstarch, flour, baking soda, and remaining hoisin marinade in a second shallow dish; mix until it resembles coarse meal.

5. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and from the marinade. Pat the marinated chicken dry with paper towels. Toss half the chicken into the foamy egg whites until well coated, then dredge the chicken in the cornstarch mixture, pressing to adhere. Transfer the coated chicken to a plate and repeat with the remaining chicken.

6. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat until the oil registers 350 degrees. Fry half the chicken until golden brown, about 3 minutes, turning each piece halfway through cooking.  Transfer the cooked chicken onto a paper towel lined plate to drain. Repeat with the remaining chicken if needed.

7. Warm the sauce over medium heat until simmering. Place the sauce in a large bowl and add the fried chicken pieces. Toss to coat and serve.