What Is Kung Pao Chicken?
Everything you’ve always wanted to know about the Chinese-American dish.
Edy Gunawan/Getty Images
By Clarissa Wei for Food Network Kitchen
Clarissa Wei is a freelance journalist based in Taipei.
Kung pao chicken is Chinese-style stir-fried chicken cubes with dried chili peppers. It’s a Sichuanese staple that was brought over to America and reinvented for local flavors and tastes. The Sichuanese version is a tad more complex, seasoned with Chinese peppercorns and a large heap of dried chili peppers. The American rendition stays true to most of the original ingredients, but the flavor profile is significantly sweeter and will sometimes include bell peppers.
LiuMeiLi/Getty Images
What Does Kung Pao Chicken Taste Like?
Americanized kung pao chicken is savory and sweet with a mild spicy kick. The peanuts really bring together the dish and give it a rounded, nutty flavor.
What Is In Kung Pao Chicken?
The building blocks of kung pao chicken are chunks of boneless chicken, chili peppers, and peanuts. A bit of soy sauce adds a necessary punch of salinity and scallions give it a nice zing. Corn starch is added to give everything a glossy and smooth texture. The dish is always served with a side of white rice.
Fernando Chee / 500px/Getty Images
What Is Kung Pao Sauce Made Of?
It depends a lot on the recipe, but generally speaking, it’s a combination of soy sauce, rice vinegar and sugar. Corn starch can be used as a thickener, though that’s optional. Kung pao sauce can be used on any protein, from chicken to shrimp to tofu.
What Is the Difference Between Kung Pao Chicken and General Tso's Chicken?
Kung pao chicken and General Tso’s chicken are similar in that they are both chicken-based dishes with a hint of chili, but the primary difference is that latter is deep-fried and coated with a syrupy sweet and sour sauce, and the former is coated with a gentle, more balanced sauce.
Kung Pao Recipes
Molly Yeh’s simple kung pao recipe utilizes ground Sichuan peppercorns, which gives the dish a nice zing.
Christopher Testani
This basic kung pao chicken recipe from Food Network Kitchen is geared for those adverse to spicy food, subbing in stir-fry vegetables for the usual chili pepper and scallion combination.
Presenting a lovely recipe that uses shrimp instead of chicken. There’s a lot of heat packed in this dish, but that’s all part of its appeal.
Matt Armendariz
Cauliflower is deep-fried and dressed with a classic kung pao sauce. A clever, vegetarian twist on an American-Chinese classic.
Tara Donne, 2012, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved
Here’s an easy way to dress snow peas: stir-fry them and add a kung pao sauce for a kick of flavor.
Charles Masters
Proof that kung pao sauce is delicious on everything. This recipe is a foolproof way to dress up a plate of leftover turkey.
Related Links:
