Kung Pao Chicken

By RoketJSquerl

Ingredients

• Chicken marinade :
• 250 gm skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2 - 2cm squares
• 3/4 cup dried chillies, cut into 3 cm lengths
• 1 tsp sichuan peppercorns
• 3/4 cup leek, cut diagonally into 2 cm lengths
• 1/2 cup yellow pepper, cut into chunks
• 1 large handful of roasted peanuts
• 2 tsp finely chopped garlic
• 2 tsp of finely chopped ginger
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 1 small egg white
• a dash of pepper
• 2 T rice wine (I used 1 1/2 tsp sugar instead)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Sauce ingredients :
• 1/2 T rice vinegar (I used apple cider)
• 1 1/2 - 2 T dark soy sauce
• 1 1/2 T sugar
• 1 1/2 T stock or water
• 1/2 tsp cornflour

Details

Adapted from cherryonacake.blogspot.com

Preparation

Step 1

Cut chicken breasts into chunks, 1.5 - 2 cm squares. Massage chicken marinade into the chicken pieces with your hands and leave in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Heat 1 cup of vegetable oil in a hot pan and fry chicken pieces in one layer at high heat. When chicken turns white at the sides, turn over and stir. Do not overcook (1 minute only) Remove chicken.

Pour away oil into a ceramic dish for later use. But leave 3 tablespoons of oil in the wok.

Fry chillies on very low heat in the oil until crispy. Make sure it doesn't burn by making sure the heat is very low. Scoop up and keep aside.

Pour away oil because this oil would be too hot(spicy) to re-use.

Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved oil from frying the chicken to the same wok. Throw in the leeks until they turn a bright green. Take out immediately and keep aside.

Add minced garlic and ginger, sichuan pepper to wok and stir a few seconds and fragrant. Pour the sauce mixture in , stirring all the time until the sauce gets dark thick and the sugar in it caramelizes. Add the chicken, leeks and stir quickly and lastly add peanuts.

Serve hot with white rice.