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Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 (378g)

Recipe makes 8 servings

Calories 428
Calories from Fat 28 (6%)
Amount Per Serving %DV
Total Fat 3.2g 4%
Saturated Fat 0.9g 4%
Monounsaturated Fat 0.9g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.7g
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 125mg 41%
Sodium 1809mg 75%
Potassium 669mg 19%
Total Carbohydrate 45.8g 15%
Dietary Fiber 1.2g 4%
Sugars 20.5g
Protein 44.7g 89%

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General Tso's Chicken

Recipe #164706 | 40 min | 20 min prep | add private note
mama's kitchen

By: mama's kitchen
Apr 17, 2006

Wow! This is even better than the BEST I have had in my fave Chinese restaurant. To make the meal go quickly prep everything the day or night before and store in the fridge. To make this easy to understand I have changed the terms to cornstarch slurry and sauce. The first is used to coat the chicken for frying, the second to coat the fried chicken. HTH I use a grater with small holes for the garlic or you can just zip all the sauce ingredients up in a blender or food processor. Enjoy! NOTE: I really appreciate all the reviews this recipe has received. I know that when making this it seems strange and like it just is not going to work. Trust that it will work even though the method and the way that the cornstarch slurry acts before cooking are so different. I was the same way the first time I made this. It does result in crispy pieces of chicken that are so like you find in a restaurant. The heat here is pretty much a balanced amount because some like it hot and some do not. Taste and add more heat as desired. Thanks again for trying this recipe. I hope that you have the great results that I have had time and again. Here is info, pics and heat levels of different chilies. http://www.foodsubs.com/Chilefre.html

SERVES 8 (change servings and units)

Ingredients

Cornstarch slurry

Sauce

Directions

  1. 1
    Place sauce ingredients in a quart jar with a lid and shake to mix. If you make this ahead of time just refrigerate until needed, shaking it again when you are ready to use it. This also keeps your dirty dishes down.
  2. 2
    Mix cornstarch slurry in a large bowl- the mixture will be strange but trust me it works. It will be VERY thick almost paste like. Add chicken pieces to coat. Using a fork remove ONE chicken piece at a time and let the excess mixture drip off. YES even though the mixture has a weird consistency it will not stick like paste and the excess will drip off. Add chicken to the hot (350 degree) oil and fry until crispy. Only cook 7 or 8 chicken pieces at a time. You do not want to raise the temp of the oil by cooking too many at a time. You can use a simple cooking or candy thermometer to judge the temp of the oil.
  3. 3
    Drain on paper towels. Keep warm- I just put them in the oven with the oven off. Repeating until all chicken is fried.
  4. 4
    In a separate wok or large skillet add a small amount of oil and heat to 400 degrees. Again, a candy thermometer works great. You can fry all the chicken, drain the oil to the desired amount and use the same pan if you like.
  5. 5
    Add green onions and hot peppers and stir fry about 30 seconds.
  6. 6
    Stir sauce mixture, and then add to pan with onions and peppers, cook until thick. If it gets too thick, add a little water. The thickness of the sauce should be similar to what you get when ordering this at a restaurant.
  7. 7
    Add chicken to sauce in wok, and cook until all is hot and bubbly. The quicker this is done the crispier the chicken stays.
  8. 8
    Serve over rice.

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Featured Reviews for This Recipe

From: OneEyedDogMama

On Jun 19, 2009

This is seriously as good as the General Tso's Chicken you would get from any restaurant. It is pretty time consuming to make, and is probably better suited for a dinner when you have a large group of people to feed, but it is totally worth it. I followed the recipe exactly as posted and it worked perfectly. Be sure and serve with broccoli! Thank you so much for posting!!!

0 people found this review helpful

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  • From: Chef #302268

    On Jun 1, 2009

    WOW!! that slurry is some seriously weird stuff!!! It was highly reminiscent of a science experiment my kids did! That being said, it is a wonderful coating; Crispy, light, and flavorful. Unfortunately it took me 1/2 hour to coat just 10 pieces. After rechecking the recipe I noted a posting saying someone had used the soy and egg as a wash and shook in baggie w/cornstarch. I decided to try that method. It worked like a charm! 15mins. later all the chicken was done. As far as taste, the chicken dipped in slurry was slightly better, but all in all for the sake of time, I'd recommend the shake method. Fantastic recipe! Thanks for sharing!

    0 people found this review helpful

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  • From: Chef #361290

    On Mar 12, 2007

    I had trouble coating the chicken with the cornstarch–egg mixture, so instead I dipped the chicken in egg and soy sauce, and then I shook it in a bag of cornstarch. This allowed me to coat the chicken MUCH faster, and I found that the chicken prepared my way tasted better too because the cornstarch layer wasn't too thick. Excellent sauce.

    25 people found this review helpful

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  • From: Country Chef

    On Sep 15, 2007

    Very good...I did have to add a little bit of water to the coating / batter mix. Substituted 3/4 tsp of Cayenne for the 8 small dried chilies. Also added some for the sauce...it really thickened fast. This is the top of my list for Tso's chk. Like these recipes with only a little bit of chopping.

    9 people found this review helpful

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  • Read all 107 reviews

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