Kung Pao (Gong Bao) (recipe with photos) | Chinese cuisine

Classic Chinese cuisine finds many fans around the world. One of the most popular recipes is gongbao chicken. This dish is in great demand on the menus of Chinese and European restaurants. It should be noted that the price tag for this menu item will be quite decent. As for Russian restaurants, this dish is served only in expensive establishments.

And if you can’t afford a trip to China and don’t want to spend your family budget on visiting a fashionable restaurant, then there is always the option of preparing this dish in your own kitchen. It will cost you much less. And you can involve the whole family in cooking. Here you just need to know a few cooking nuances and choose the right frying pan.

The right dishes

As you know, the key to half the success of properly preparing any Chinese dish is a high-quality wok. This frying pan works great both on an open fire and on a regular gas or induction stove. It is important to choose a good manufacturer so as not to be disappointed in the quality of the dishes in the future. The wok must be made of good steel and properly processed. When you cook in such a frying pan, food should not burn, and there should be no ferrous taste or smell.

Before cooking, it is important to thoroughly treat and rinse the surface of the cookware. Gongbao chicken is a recipe that requires maximum aroma and taste of the products, so there should be no foreign matter or smell of detergent in the pan. The wok should be washed with a stiff brush (sponge) and only with water, without adding household chemicals.

Description of preparation:

I suggest you cook this traditional Chinese dish!
Chicken pieces are fried in small portions until crispy. Then they are stewed together with vegetables: sweet and hot peppers, ginger, onions and peanuts. It is advisable to serve this chicken with boiled rice! I don’t recommend changing anything in the recipe, because... it's traditional! Purpose: For lunch / For dinner / For a holiday table / Inexpensive Main ingredient: Poultry / Chicken Dish: Hot dishes / Spicy Geography of cuisine: Chinese / Asian

Ingredients for the dish

To prepare the gongbao chicken recipe, you will need only fresh and high-quality ingredients. There is no point in saving money here, otherwise you won’t be able to enjoy the true taste.

• Two to three slices of chicken (350 g).
• A couple of cloves of garlic. For those who like it “hot”, you can take more.
• Ginger root (3-5 cm).
• 5-7 pieces of green onions. This recipe uses the white, juicy part of the onion.
• Chili pepper (3-4 pcs.). You can use either dried or fresh chilies. You can mix both in equal quantities.
• Two types of bell peppers (it is better to take multi-colored peppers).
• Sichuan pepper – 1 teaspoon. Do not take ground, it does not retain the sharpness and aroma as well.
• 100 grams of nuts. You can take regular peanuts or cashews.
• 4-5 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

The history of Gongbao

The author of this delicious Chinese dish is considered to be the Chinese dignitary Ding Baozhen. He lived during the Qing Dynasty.

The famous gourmet often treated his guests to his own home-cooked dish – carefully fried chicken slices. When he happened to become the governor of Sichuan province, the dignitary slightly modified his culinary masterpiece. By adapting Gongbao to the characteristics of Sichuan cuisine, Ding Baozhen made the dish more spicy and spicy. Subsequently, this recipe became widespread. Gongbao began to be prepared in restaurants all over the world. The dish received this name because Ding Baozhen held the position of tutor to the heir (gongbao) at the imperial court.

Ingredients for marinade and sauce

So, you decided to cook a dish like gongbao chicken. The classic recipe for this dish necessarily includes marinating the chicken, so don’t forget about it. For the marinade you will need:

• A couple of teaspoons of soy sauce (light is better).
• One tsp. wine (Shaoxing).
• A tablespoon of water.
• 0.5 teaspoon of salt.
• One tsp. corn starch.

Immerse the chicken in the prepared marinade and leave to soak for half an hour. Cooking and marinating meat is an important process. Gongbao chicken is not your average frying pan breast with lemon. All the smallest details are important here.

A dish is prepared with a special sauce. It contains several types of soy sauce (a couple of spoons each), one tsp. sesame oil, three tsp. granulated sugar and a couple of tablespoons of water.

Features of the dish

In the “original” version of preparation, the Sichuan cuisine dish has a pronounced spicy taste. But in different regions of the country and outside China, it can be made slightly differently: in a form adapted to the preferences of local cuisines. For example, in Malaysia it is customary to cook Gongbao without peanuts.

In Chinese regions, various types of vegetables can be added to a famous Chinese dish:

• broccoli;
• sweet green pepper;
• carrot;
• celery.

Since there are many variations of chicken preparation, the chili pepper present in the original recipe is sometimes “diluted” with red sweet pepper. Peanuts are often replaced with cashews. In turn, sesame oil is sometimes added to the marinade.

Lovers of sweet and sour meat should try the Western version of the dish. To do this, you need to add more sugar when preparing the sauce for frying the chicken and put only 2 pieces of chili pepper in Gongbao.

Preparing Ingredients

Try to prepare the ingredients and sauce in advance, since the dish is cooked over high heat. This is a quick gongbao chicken. The recipe with photos is presented in our article. The photographs will convince you that the main thing here is that all the products in the process are already at hand.

Garlic and ginger are peeled from the outer “clothing” and finely chopped. It is better not to use a grater or garlic press. Hot chili peppers should be washed, internal membranes and seeds removed. The pepper is cut into small strips. If you don't like spicy dishes, you can replace the chili with paprika or remove ginger from the recipe. However, gongbao chicken will not turn out classic, and you will no longer get the full range of pleasure from Chinese food.

We clean the nuts. Pour into a frying pan with a small amount of sesame oil. Heat and fry slightly until a distinct aroma appears. Place on a paper towel to remove unnecessary oil. Cut green onions into slices. Bell pepper - in small layers or strips.

Traditional chicken gongbao recipe

Ingredients of the dish:

• Raw chicken fillet (700 grams)
• Sen Soy sauce (2 tbsp) classic soy sauce
• Shaoxing wine (2 tbsp.) Chinese yellow rice
• Corn starch (1 tbsp) premium grade
• Peanut butter (not paste) (80 ml)
• Hot Sichuan pepper (2 tbsp)
• Onion (3 stalks) regular green
• Peanuts (75 grams), shelled, unsalted
• Garlic (2 cloves)
• Ginger (10 grams)
• Vinegar (1 tbsp.) Chinese black rice
• Paste (1 tbsp.) spicy chili
• Whole chili (12 pieces) dried peppers
• Leeks (2 pieces)
• Sugar (1 teaspoon)

1. Cut the chicken into small pieces, about one and a half centimeters each. Add two teaspoons of soy sauce, the same amount of Shaoxing wine, 1 tsp. corn starch. Mix everything thoroughly and marinate for half an hour.
2. Grind 1 tbsp in a mortar and pestle. l. dry Sichuan hot pepper. Mix the greens of chopped onion with it, setting aside the light parts for now.
3. Stir unused Sen Soy, rice wine and starch into a new bowl. Put 1 tbsp there. l. black Chinese vinegar and chili paste, as well as 1 tsp. Sahara. Mix the mixture until all the starch has dissolved. The special sauce for the chicken is ready, you will need it later in the recipe.
4. Pour refined, odorless oil into a saucepan and heat over high heat. Place the remaining half of unground Sichuan pepper and dried chili peppers there. Fry for about 15 seconds until fragrant, then strain the oil using a strainer.
5. Place the wok over high heat and add 20 ml of peanut oil. Add half of the marinated fillet pieces and fry for one minute. Next, for 2 minutes. fry, stirring quickly. Transfer the chicken to a separate bowl. After wiping the pan with a paper towel and adding another 20 ml of oil, fry the second half of the fillet in the same way.
6. Cut the leeks into wide rings. Wipe the wok with a paper towel, add another 20 ml of peanut oil and fry the onion for 1 minute so that it does not lose its fresh crunch.
7. Add previously cooked peppers, peeled unsalted peanuts and chicken pieces. Add the rest of the oil - 20 ml. Then, pushing the entire mass to the edge, add chopped white onions, as well as garlic and ginger. Fry for 15 seconds.
8. Place in a separate bowl. Mix the ingredients, adding sauce (from step 3) to taste. Add the remaining Sichuan peppercorns and green onions. The gongbao chicken according to the recipe is cooked and can be served.

“For the dish to turn out as in the photo, all ingredients must be fresh and of high quality.”

Cooking process

Place the frying pan over high heat and heat until smoking appears. Add a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil. Try to distribute the oil over the entire surface of the pan. As soon as the oil warms up, pour it out and put the wok back on the fire.

Add a couple of tablespoons of oil again and add the first batch of ingredients. It will be chili and Szechuan pepper. At this moment, the speed should be taken off the heat and the oil should be allowed to soak in the spices, without allowing them to burn. Return the wok to the heat and add the chicken.

Once the chicken changes its pinkish color to white, add ginger, green onions, bell pepper and garlic. Chicken gongbao with peanuts is a very quick recipe. It only takes a couple of minutes for the meat to be saturated with spices and saturated with aromas.

After this time, add the sauce prepared in advance. The dish should be stirred constantly without removing from high heat. Once the sauce becomes glossy and thickens, you can add nuts. Mix all the ingredients and remove the wok from the heat.

Nutritional and energy value:

Garnish and serving

The dish is served immediately after preparation. The classic is hot, piping hot chicken gongbao, as they say. The dish can also be eaten cold. But precisely in the cold. You should not reheat or microwave it before guests arrive (as we are used to).

As for the side dish, there are several options. Firstly, you don’t have to use any side dish at all. The Chinese enjoy this dish, so to speak, in its original form. Only a plate of bread or sesame dough strips is added to the table. If you don’t have enough chicken to fill you up or want to dilute the too spicy taste of the dish, then you can use rice noodles or rice as a side dish.

Classic Chinese white wine serves as an aperitif for this dish. You can also take Japanese plum wine.

Nutritional and energy value:

Vietnamese salad with chicken and peanuts

Category: Snacks> Salads> Vegetable salads

9 ingredients

Lightly salt the chicken fillet, wrap in foil and bake in the oven. Cool without removing the foil.

Cut all the vegetables into strips and mix.

Season the salad with TM Kikkoman soy sauce, peanut oil (any kind) and vinegar. You can use any vinegar you like. I have vinegar on lime peels, very flavorful….

tags: salad appetizer