Kung Pao Chicken - HISTORY AND RECIPE
After our first blog about Tom Yum fried rice was published, we brainstormed a number of hours to come up with other Thai dishes we could write about. Since most of the famous Thai dishes have already been covered in ALL sorts of details there is by many bloggers worldwide, we figured it’s time to change things up a little - meaning, we will cover a Chinese traditional dish this time around!
Get ready cos’ it’s time for - *drum rolls* the bad boy Sichuan dish “KKKKKKUUNNNGPAO chicken” or chickuhn in Asian accent. Say it out loud before you read any further. Say it with me in your best Asian accent…”Kungpao Chickuhnnn!!”
That’s right, the mood is set. So let’s talk about this world famous dish which will literally make your mouths water. Before we elaborate any further - we all know that before you put something in your mouth, you gotta know where it came from and how it came about, right? So, some history.
Kung Pao Chicken History 101
Kung Pao (or) Gong Bao (or) Kung Po chicken is a spicy, stir-fried dish with chicken (duh!), peanuts or cashew nuts (your choice of nuts no pun), vegetables and chili peppers. The name came from a Chinese dude from the 18th century dude called Ding Baozhen whose title was “Gong Bao” which is Chinese for “palace protector”.The dish was originated from the legendary province of China namely “Sichuan”. Heaps of amazing dishes come from this province which we will also be discussing in our future posts.
First of all, we gotta know that the Chinese do take their dishes and cooking seriously - what I mean is, many Chinese believe that (especially the elderly) if the Kung Pao Chicken isn’t made Sichuan style, it ain’t no Kung Pao chicken at all. Sounds fair though, now that there are so many variants of the dish out there, including the western styles (not that it is a bad thing,...or is it?).
So let me explain the variations of this famous dish. First of all, let’s take a look at the original -
Sichuan Style Kung Pao Chicken
Sichuan is the birthplace of Kung Pao chicken. And, it mainly uses chicken as the dish’s main protein, which sounds a bit obvious but I had to mention it because the western variations may use other meat.
As I mentioned earlier how folks in China are serious about their dishes - in Sichuan, the Kung Pao chicken dish can only be made if we have two types of Chinese traditional peppers: facing heaven pepper (which is used in like every Sichuan cuisine ever) or seven stars pepper. Without either of those ingredients, the Kung Pao chicken dish does not make the cut for the Sichuan-ers. Besides using the peppers, the dish must also have Sichuan peppercorn (which is also called Chinese coriander) flash-fried into the dish to add the trademark fragrance. Another distinctive step to keeping the dish as Sichuan-y as possible is to add cashew nuts into the hot oil after stir-frying the chicken and the vegetables. But, the main difference with this and the Western variants is that the Chinese like their cashews or peanuts unroasted, fresh and moist for this particular dish. Also, the Sichuan style uses Shaoxing cooking wine to marinate the chicken before cooking.
We will discuss all the detailed ingredients and instructions on how to cook Kung Pao chicken Sichuan style in a bit.
Western Variation
The subtle differences between Sichuan version and Western variations of this dish are - the use of Sherry instead of Shaoxing wine, and also the peanuts or cashews are usually pre-roasted. The main difference, though would be western version of Kung Pao Chicken uses black pepper instead of Sichuan’s facing heaven or seven stars peppers, because it isn’t easy to buy these Asian spices at your local grocery stores in many western countries.
Other S.E Asian variations
Make no mistake...there are a ton of other Kung pao chicken variations all around Asia, even in China herself. Original Sichuan version is a little spicier than the rest due to their heavy use of chili peppers. Vietnam has its own variation with tofu in it. Malaysia has its own version as well with the addition of traditional spices. Likewise, Myanmar has its own version of Kung pao chicken, they call it “Konbaung Gyi kyaw.” (close, enough?). This version uses a lot more vegetables than chicken, and more oil than soy sauce or cooking wine. Nonetheless, they are awesome!
That’s pretty much it about the history of this world’s famous dish and now it’s time to talk about how to make it. For recipe, we will cover the Sichuan version as it is the most popular and the tastiest among all variations.
Recipe
Before anything, you will have to have your protein and marinate it, in this post, we will be using chickuhn.
To marinate chicken you will need,
Chicken breast (2 breasts)
Dark soy sauce (1 tsp)
Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing wine or dry sherry ) (1 Tbsp)
Corn starch (2 tsp)
White pepper (1/2 tsp)
For making the soy sauce you will need,
Chicken Stock (1/2 cup)
Dark soy sauce (1/2 tsp)
Light soy sauce (3 Tbsp)
Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing wine or dry sherry ) (1Tbsp)
Black vinegar or normal rice vinegar (1 Tbsp)
Sugar (2 Tbsp)
Corn starch (1 tsp)
Other various ingredients to your liking such as,
Cooking Oil (2 to 3 Tbsp)
Garlic (3 to 4 gloves)
Ginger (5 to 6 slice)
Spring Onion (1 stalk)
Dry chili (2 to 3)
Peppercorn (2/3 cup) - (you may use black pepper if Sichuan peppers aren’t available at your local store, but we encourage you to get the facing heaven Sichuan peppers especially for this dish)
Roasted cashew nuts (1/2 cup)
Sesame oil (1 tsp)
Cooking
Let’s break the cooking down to two parts:
Part 1
- cut the chicken into normal size cubes and marinate according to the ingredients above.
- heat the frying wok or pan and add half of cooking oil.
- fry the seasoned chicken in the wok for a few minutes until they turn to golden brown color and crispy outside.
- set aside the chicken.
Part 2
- In the same pan sauté chopped garlic and ginger. Then add peppercorns and sliced dry chili.
- Combine all the ingredients for the sauce and add into the pan. Cook it for a minute.
- Now we add the chicken that we pan fried before and stir fry everything to together for 1 to 2 minutes. (Don’t forget to adjust the heat)
- Finally add sliced spring onion and roasted cashew nuts toss the pan a few times.
- Drizzle sesame oil on top and serve.
- God damn, I am hungry.
How to make Sichuan style Kung Pao Chicken video:
Disclaimer: I do not own or have made this video, it belongs to “The Art of Cooking” on YouTube.
So, there you have it. We hope you enjoy reading the post and have a wonderful meal with your family and loved ones. I mean, this is why we are writing after all - for everyone to be able to cook good food and acknowledge the history of the cuisine. If our readers are able to do that after reading these posts, we have achieved our mission. So, thanks for sticking around guys! And, be ready for more stuff in a few days. We’ll see you on the flip side!
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