General Tso's Chicken

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 500 g chicken breast or thigh, without skin
• 1 egg(s) for the breading
• 4 tbsp cornstarch for the breading
• 2 liters of oil for frying, less for wok
• 1 tbsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp rice wine, Chinese (Shaoxing wine)
• 1 tsp black pepper from the mill
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp sambal oelek
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp rice wine, Chinese (Shaoxing wine)
• 50 ml fat (chicken fat or goose fat or ghee)
• 1 tbsp, heaped cornstarch
• 2 tbsp chili oil with peanuts and flakes, e.g. Lao gan ma
• 4 large garlic cloves, peeled, coarsely chopped
• 5 chili pepper(s), dried
• 2 spring onions, cut into rings
• 1 head of broccoli
• some salt water

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Rest time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 2 hours

Cut the chicken into bite-sized cubes. Then marinate with pepper, salt, baking soda (the baking soda softens the meat), and the Chinese wine. Knead the ingredients into the meat by hand. Let it rest for about 1/2 hour. If desired, slice the spring onions into thin rings and set aside. Peel the garlic for the sauce and chop it roughly. Stir the sauce ingredients together to dissolve the sugar and set aside. Now all the chopping is done. This is important when cooking in a wok. Now add the egg and starch to the marinated meat and knead in by hand again. Heat the oil to about 160°C and fry the chicken pieces until lightly browned and cooked through. Add the pieces of meat one at a time so they don’t stick together. It’s better to do this in 2-3 batches rather than all at once. Remove and drain on kitchen paper. Increase the heat to 190°C and then add the chicken pieces again to crisp them up for about 1 minute. Remove and drain on kitchen paper. Now you can turn off the fryer. In a cold wok, heat the roughly chopped garlic, dried chilies, and chili oil over medium heat until you can smell their aroma. Now mix all the sauce ingredients well before adding them to the pan, otherwise lumps are likely to form. Add and stir until the sauce has thickened. Turn off the heat. If you want to use spring onions, add them now. Stir briefly. Then add the chicken pieces. Stir until the pieces are coated in the sauce. This goes well with rice. I used finely chopped broccoli, including the stalks, which I peeled and cut into strips, and cooked it in boiling salted water for about 2-3 minutes. I served the broccoli with it, but didn’t stir it into the sauce with the meat. It’s visually appealing, but the broccoli also provides a “cool” accompaniment to the spicy meat. If you don’t have chicken fat, you can use goose fat or melted, browned butter (ghee). Store-bought goose fat always contains pork fat, as it would be liquid at room temperature. Therefore, use homemade if you want to avoid pork products.