I used to work right next to a Chinese restaurant and that's when I discovered General Tso's. Now that I'm back in school and not working I don't get to eat there anymore, but I still crave it like every week! General Tso's is a classic Chinese-American dish that every fat cow should learn how to make! It's sweet, spicy and did I mention deep-fat fried? Let's get to it!
The first time I tried making this I kinda failed: (recipe)
It doesn't look too disgusting but for how much time, money and effort I put into making this it was a total failure.
The main problem I had with this attempt was the soy sauce. This recipe calls for dark soy sauce, which is like your typical soy sauce except it is thicker, darker and less salty. I used it in this recipe and Korean Fried Chicken and both times it made the chicken super black and overpowered the dish. I probably just got some poor quality dark soy sauce or the wrong kind, but I am not a fan of dark soy sauce at the moment!
The second time I attempted Gernal Tso's was much better: (recipe)
Can we just appreciate the color for a moment? It's actually red! ♥
This recipe tasted so much better - in fact, I ate all of it...
Pro's:
+ Perfect spiciness
+ Sauce has some decent flavors, thickens right up and doesn't turn everything black
+ Fairly simple ( a lot more than the first recipe)
+/- It's more savory than sweet (most people consider this a good thing but I guess I prefer mine overtly sweet? lol)
Con's:
- Lots of random ingredients (bad if you don't cook lots of weird things)
- Hard to get perfect, crispy chicken (partially my fault)
- Used a lot of corn starch (I had a lot left over but I cut my chicken in larger strips for ease, which is probably why)
Stuff I Learned:
+ Alcohol is great for deep-frying stuff! Alcohol has a lower boiling-point so it makes the outsides crispy and keeps the insides juicy. For this recipe I used Mirin, a Japanese rice wine (8% ABV). Sherry is around (18% ABV), which is probably more ideal. I used Sherry and vodka in the first recipe and the chicken was nice and crispy! The sauce just turned out nasty. Does anyone know where you can buy Shaoxing Wine? I couldn't find it in the Asian market...
+ Dried red chili peppers are the best thing ever invented! They are super cheap and can be bought at the Asian market and possibly at the grocery store. A word of caution: don't cut them open or the seeds will go everywhere and make your dish exceedingly spicy. If a recipe calls for 8 chili peppers, it means whole peppers. I made this mistake when experimenting with them in my pasta.
+ Using chicken thighs might actually make this a lot better? I used frozen chicken breast both times just because it was free (thanks mom).
I followed the recipe fairly closely but I did add a small thumb-size piece of ginger (minced) and I omitted the scallions. They do add some nice color contrast and a bit of freshness, but I'm not too huge on onions so I didn't go out of my way for them. I also substituted Sriracha for the chili paste.
