Chinese
Kung Pao Chicken
Kung Pao Chicken is Chinese home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 3/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
- 8 dried red chilies
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 5 scallions
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp neutral oil
How to cook it
- Cut the chicken into bite-size cubes and toss with 1 tbsp cornstarch and 1 tbsp soy sauce.
- Stir the remaining soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, and remaining cornstarch with 1/4 cup water to make the sauce.
- Heat the neutral oil in a wok over high heat and stir-fry the chicken until browned and cooked through, about 6 minutes, then push to one side.
- Add the dried chilies, garlic, and ginger and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Pour in the sauce and toss until it thickens and coats the chicken, about 1 minute.
- Stir in the peanuts, scallions, and sesame oil and serve hot over rice.
Serve it with
A Chinese dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Kung Pao Chicken, read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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Something to sip
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Kung Pao Chicken carries peanuts, gluten, soy, and sesame. It is free of the remaining 6 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | Yes | Beef and Broccoli |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | Yes | Turkey Lettuce Wraps |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | Yes | Nothing comparable without it yet |
| Fish | No | |
| Sesame | Yes | Mapo Tofu |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Moderate
- Protein
- High
- Protein quality
- Complete
- Food groups it covers
- Meat or fish and Nuts and seeds
- How this was set
- Hand audited
When to cook it
Kung Pao Chicken takes about 30 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.
More to cook
Cooked from the same things
Other dishes built on chicken, peanut, chili, and scallion.
From the same kitchens
More cooking from the United States.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.