From testing, one thing was certain: a thicker, egg-based marinade is superior to a thin marinade, which produced chicken that was powdery and a crust that turned soft within seconds of coming out of the fryer. Adding a bit of starch to the marinade before tossing it in a dry coat was even better. Better, but not perfect.
The General may have won this battle, but he will lose the war, I swear it. The other takeaway? Dark meat is the way to go. Breast meat comes out dry and chalky, a problem that can be mitigated with some extended marinating the soy sauce in the marinade acts as a brine , helping it to retain moisture , but the process adds time to an already lengthy recipe, and even brined white meat is nowhere near as juicy as dark meat.
And who are we kidding? General Tso's is never going to be health food. Break out the thighs for this one and check out our guide to deboning 'em. None of the existing techniques I found gave me quite the coating I was looking for, so I decided to start expanding my search, pulling out all of the chicken-frying tricks in the book. What about double-dipping? I started my chicken pieces in a thick marinade made of egg white, soy sauce, wine, baking powder and cornstarch I found that adding baking powder to the batter helped keep it lighter as it fried , then dipped it into a mixture of cornstarch, flour, and baking powder adding flour helps with browning.
After that I moved it back to the wet mixture, and again into the dry, creating an extra thick coating. Extra thick coatings produce extra crunchy chicken for sure. Too crunchy, unfortunately. Getting close to a quarter inch thick in parts, the coating made the General Tso's taste more like tough crackers than anything.
Extra leavening didn't help. Next I went for a different approach, looking to Korea for some clues. I had already spent a good deal of time perfecting a recipe for Korean fried chicken , and that recipe tackles a similar problem: how to get battered, deep fried chicken wings to stay crisp when coated in sauce.
The solution there? Use a thin slurry of cornstarch that's been cut with vodka, an idea that I first saw in British chef Heston Blumenthal's Perfection series. The vodka can help fried foods get crisp in two important ways.
First, alcohol is more volatile than water and soy sauce, wine, and eggs are basically water. That is to say, it evaporates more readily, and since frying is essentially a process of evaporation, batters made with alcohol tend to come out crisper.
Vodka also serves to limit gluten development. Why is this important? One of the issues I was finding with my fried chicken chunks was that the coating, which started out crisp, soon turned leathery as it began to get cool or moist. This is a result of overdevelopment of gluten, the interconnected network of proteins that forms when flour and water are mixed. You want some gluten in the mix without it, you end up with a powdery, papery crust , but too much can be an issue.
Because gluten does not form in alcohol, vodka lets you achieve a batter that doesn't get leathery as it cools. I tried coating chicken thigh pieces with the exact same batter that I used for that Korean fried chicken before tossing it in sauce and tasting it. It was an improvement on the stay-crisp-when-wet front for sure, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for in General Tso's. It needed more craggy nooks and crannies to capture that sauce. With the idea of nooks and crannies in my head, my thoughts immediately jumped to my homemade Chick-Fil-A sandwich.
The trick there turned out to be adding a bit of the wet batter to the dry mix before dredging the chicken in it. By working that wet batter into the dry mix with your fingertips, you create little nuggets of breading that stick to the exterior of the chicken. After deep frying, those little nuggets help increase the surface area of the chicken, making it extra crunchy and crisp.
In retrospect, thinking of fast food seemed like such an obvious move. After all, those Chicken McNuggets stay crisp for hours , and if you've been following along for a while, you'll know of this little hack: use Popeye's chicken nuggets in Chinese-American stir-fries instead of frying your own chicken. It just makes sense to start this dish with really great chicken nuggets, right?
Have made it twice now and will be making it for a long time. Again, thanks! This was easy and ridiculously good. I literally go out of my way to make sure that I review what recipes I make from this site because they are that good. Thanks so much Sabrina! Delish, and everyone loved it! I doubled the chicken and the sauce and added broccoli. Was perfect and tender. Thanks for a new winner in our dinner rotation!
My husband and I were really disappointed. The flavors were unbalanced and the sauce lacked the richness one expects from General Tso. It ended up being a huge waste of ingredients. Literally the exact thing I was thinking. I know with recipes, we can tweak it to our liking, but from the jump, this recipe had too much rice vinegar added. I so agree! I had to throw it in the trash and was so disappointed.
Is it too much vinegar or soy sauce? It had a funky flavor. However with hoisin and soy sauces, mine was brown…. Different brands have different coloring. Absolutely wonderful. Family and friends love it!!! Easy recipe to follow. Wow, two times in one week definitely sounds like a winning dish. Thanks for coming back to let me know. Love this and your orange chicken!! It immediately got written into our recipe book. The sauce is awesome!
Question- What would you do to make it slightly more spicy? I like the elevated level of the ingredients without just adding a basic hot sauce.
But maybe that would be easiest. If you want to make it spicier, you could add hot peppers or use a chili-infused oil or the easiest would to add crushed red peppers to the finished dish. Came out ok. Just wish the time for the frying was more descriptive. But it did come out well. Just the right amount of heat and it is as easy as they make it sound!
Show More Comments. Friend's Email Address. I have everything in my pantry or fridge already. But, I have news for him. Thanks again for such an easy and tasty recipe. I love being able to make variations of a recipe to switch things up a little bit. This is an amazing sauce! Pickled Plum is a blog with over a thousand recipes packed with delicious flavors, and all easy to make!
What is general tso sauce? General Tso Sauce Ingredients Even though there are three versions of this sauce, there are also common thread ingredients that appear throughout the variations. Chicken Broth : This provides the savory undertones to our General Tso sauce.
Use vegetable broth or water for a vegan version. Tomato Paste : Concentrated tomatoey goodness — without the added moisture fresh tomato sauce would impart. Soy Sauce : The universal bringer of earthy umami perfection in Asian food the world over! Hoisin Sauce : Thick, dark, sweet and salty — hoisin sauce adds a candied, pungent kick to our General Tso stir fry sauce.
Sriracha : Heat and sweet are the hallmarks of this famous Asian chili sauce. Rice Vinegar : Rice vinegar adds a wonderful tart zing that is slightly more subdued than white or red wine vinegar. Granulated Sugar : If you like it sweet, you know what to do! Cornstarch : Mixed with a bit of water, cornstarch will create the thick, glossy consistency we associate with many Chinese-American sauces. How to make general tso sauce Put all the ingredients for the sauce — EXCEPT for cornstarch and water mixture — in a medium size pot and bring to a gentle boil.
Give the cornstarch and water a quick stir and slowly add to the simmering sauce while stirring. Cook for a minute until sauce thickens and turn the heat off. Regular : The quintessential flavor of a balanced General Tso recipe. Savory meets tangy and subtly sweet. This is a balanced sauce that honors the Chinese-American classic. Sweet : No matter where the actual roots of General Tso chicken originate, the recipe has leaned towards the sweeter side of things as it evolved on these shores and catered to the American palate.
This simple variation on the original just doubles down on the sugar. Hot : Like a little fire? Preparation Combine soy sauce, wine, vinegar, chicken stock, sugar, sesame seed oil, and cornstarch in a small bowl and stir with a fork until cornstarch is dissolved and no lumps remain. Set aside. Combine oil, garlic, ginger, minced scallions, and red chilies in a large skillet and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until vegetables are aromatic and soft, but not browned, about 3 minutes.
Stir sauce mixture and add to skillet, making sure to scrape out and sugar or starch that has sunk to the bottom. Cook, stirring, until sauce boils and thickens, about 1 minute.
Add scallion segments. Transfer sauce to a bowl to stop cooking.
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