Frank's Recipes! Gong Bao Ji Ding (Kung Pao Chicken)

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Gong Bao Ji Ding

AKA: Kung Pao Chicken
This is a very authentic version of the popular dish served in so many American restaurants. Restaurants almost never make correctly. This dish was created to honor a Chinese official who was named "Gong Bao" hence the name. "Ji Ding" means chopped chicken. "Ji" = chicken "Ding" = chopped into bite size pieces. So the dish is Gong Bao's chopped chicken.

Warning: Extremely hot!!!

If this dish is prepared properly it is one of the hottest Sichuan dishes! Be careful and try it with a few less chilies the first time. Please heed the warnings about cooking the chilies.

Main:
1 or 2 chicken breasts. (dark meat may be used but breast meat is best)
4 to 15 Chinese hot chilies.
3 to 5 scallions (spring onions)
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1/4 cup roasted peanuts or cashews
1 to 2 tablespoon Fresh ginger shredded or very finely chopped.

NOTE:
The large quantity of ginger is important here as it should the most prominent flavor of the dish. About ginger: Keep fresh ginger in the freezer and "slice" very fine slices with a cleaver WHILE STILL FROZEN. This produces very fine shreds of ginger that can be chopped finer with the cleaver. Freezing fresh ginger makes it last for months and keeps it tasting as fresh as when you bought it. Look for firm SHINY skinned ginger that has lots of little buds and looks good and gnarly. Fresh ginger has a fruity almost citrus quality and that is what you want to convey into the dish.

Marinade:
2 tablespoon corn starch
1 to 2 tsp. light soy
1 to 2 tsp. rice wine
1 small egg white
This should make a fairly dry marinade. This is important for the coating to come out right.

Sauce:
2 tablespoon medium soy sauce
1 to 2 tablespoon sugar
1 to 2 tsp. corn starch
1 to 2 tablespoon rice wine. (not sherry!) Use Shao Shin, or better Lau Chew
1/2 to 1 tsp. rice vinegar (light)
1 tsp. toasted sesame oil

Make sauce:
Mix the sauce until all dry ingredients are dissolved.
Set aside for final step.

To cook:
Chop (ding!) the chicken and mix with the marinade.
Set aside in refrigerator. Allow at least 30 minutes to marinate.

Chop the scallions into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Heat the wok then add some oil. Turn the heat up all the way and wait for the oil to get very hot. Toss in the chilies. Here you will char the chilies until they turn BLACK! This flavors the oil with the main feature of this dish, the wonderful aroma of charred chilies! The oil will flavor the whole dish.

WARNING! WARNING! W A R N I N G !!!! OPEN WINDOWS ARE AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY! Charring the chilies done correctly will produce smoke that is very irritating to the lungs! Please be careful! This is the reason that NO Chinese restaurant in the USA makes "REAL" Kung Pao Chicken!

After the chilies have turned black and you can breath again turn up the heat all the way and toss in the chicken and the ginger. Stir fry for a few seconds then toss in the garlic. Stir fry a few more seconds, then toss in the peanuts and the onions. Stir fry until the chicken has turned white and everything is well coated with the oil. Then toss in all at once the sauce mixture. Stir to coat the chicken, nuts, onions, etc. with the sauce and allow it to thicken up into a nice glaze coating. You have to practice this but when you get it right you should have no sauce running off of the food. It should just be a nice hot, sweet, shinny coating. Serve immediately with steamed rice.