My favorite Chinese take out (or better yet, delivered!) dinner is either Kung Pao Chicken, or General Tso. Both are sweet and spicy, robust in flavor... and both are fried
.
I found a great recipe for Kung Pao a few years back at
America's Test Kitchen (I use their recipe for Kung Pao Shrimp, just subbing chicken and cooking a little longer) – it is quite good, and while I keep a well stocked
Asian pantry, I don't always have all of the ingredients at my dispoasal, so some pre-planning is required.
But
THIS version of General Tso has very few 'asian specific' ingredients, and I DO have those at all times! The other stuff – like flour, sugar, cayenne, garlic... I'm hoping you have most of those as well. Do all your measuring and prep work first - this really goes fast once you get started...
Really simple technique used here – you dredge your boneless chicken in a flour that you've seasoned, and BAKE it (note: don't forget to flip halfway through)! While that's going, you mix your sauce ingredients (if you didn't take my prep advice), make a caramel syrup by boiling water and sugar together, and then combine. Exercise caution when combining the hot and cold stuff – hot sugar is nothing to mess with!!! But YUM – this really works
Toss your baked chicken with the sauce and serve over rice. Best part?!!? It can be done in 30 - 40 MINUTES! Home delivery can take that long – and this is just as good, healthier, fresher, cheaper... So try some “take-out†at home