General Tso’s Chicken Recipe
At nearly any buffet or take-out place you can find General Tso’s Chicken. General Tso’s Chicken is a perfect combination of sweet and spicy flavors. It is a very popular dish throughout the United States and Canada. This is probably one of the best and easiest recipes around, you will be surprised at how little time it takes to prepare. I decided to get brave and use the boneless skinless chicken thighs, and I wasn’t disappointed. However, If you want to use chicken breasts that would work fine as well. The sauce keeps it nice and simple with only a few necessary ingredients to create the perfect generals sauce. For the frying – it’s your choice if you want to use a deep fryer or wok. What I did was first deep fry the chicken and then fry it in the wok for a few minutes before adding the sauce. What this does is give the chicken bits a spicy flavor coming from the dried chilies that are fried in the oil. If you are looking for an amazing recipe for General Tso’s chicken give this one a try. Serve on top of white rice. Enjoy.
Ingredients:
1lb boneless skinless chicken thighs (cut into 1” chunks)
5 dried red chili peppers
3 green onions (sliced)
3 eggs (beaten)
½ cup cornstarch
oil (for frying)
Sauce-
1 ½ tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons rice wine
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Cooking Instructions:
Step 1: In a large mixing bowl combine cornstarch and beaten eggs. Mix well to create a batter. Add chicken bits and coat thoroughly.
Step 2: To make the sauce- in a small bowl combine rice vinegar, rice wine, soy sauce, sugar and cornstarch. Mix well and set aside.
Step 3: Heat deep fryer or wok to 375 degrees and deep fried chicken bits in batches. Drain on paper towels.
Step 4: Add 1-2 tablespoons of oil to your wok. Add dried chili peppers to your wok and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add chicken bits to the wok and stir fry for a couple minutes.
Step 5: Add sauce mixture to the wok and cook stirring until the sauce becomes thickened and bubbly. Garnish with green onions and serve.
(Makes about 2 servings)
this dish sounds so interesting! i love its name
oh, nice move on using chicken thighs. as much as it’s so convenient to use chicken breasts, i find that using meat from the thigh in stirfries like these help to keep the meat more tender and juicy. mmm…i’ll like to make this some time soon as i’ve got chicken in the freezer!! x
Oh yeah! This is my favorite dish to order at the Chinese restaurant, thanks for the recipe Bobby, I am definitely trying this one. My wife always wants to share lately and doesn’t like hot stuff, so I never get to order it anymore! One question, are there specific red chilis to use or just whatever dried chilis they have in the produce section?
Thanks.
Steve
oh my… it looks so delicious… thanks for sharing…
I love all your chicken recipes. This one sounds great as well. There’s an Award for you on my blog.
diva - Yeah, I did find the chicken really juicy, it was great. I hope you enjoy the recipe.
Steve - I’m not sure exactly. I don’t have a large variety or these where I live. I wouldn’t worry about it too much as you don’t really eat them they just flavor the sauce and chicken. I hope you enjoy the recipe.
mikky - no problem, it was really good.
Ivy - Thanks for the award!
This looks about one million times better than my local take out joint. I might just have to try this next time I have a Chinese craving.
This looks great and so easy. I must try it!
What’s interesting about this dish (and I love General Tso’s Chicken, it’s what I always order whenever I get Chinese; that and a quart of wonton) is that I’ve had a subscription to Men’s Health for about 6 years and at one point they did a full article on *healthy* cuisines from around the world (how to make them) and they showed that the name ‘General Tso’ is just a marketing gimmick in the US; ask a Chinaman about General Tso and they only thing he’ll know is that it’s a popular dish served in America. There was no famous General Tso in China’s history.
General tso’s chicken truly is the best chinese food. It is A-Mazing
This is my all time favorite food (unfortunately!)!
I love the look of this recipe in the pictures you took and I am going to try to cook this myself soon! I’m not very good in the kitchen, but I will post back in a few days to comment on how it turned out.
Thanks for the recipe!
Wow, this looks sooooo good! Definitely going to try it this weekend
will be cooking it to night it looks good
very nice - and easy directions…. I will definitely try your version and add it to my arsenal of chinese recipes….
have a happy!
I’m in the uk and I think this is what we call Kung Po Chicken and its my fav… yum… yum! They sometimes add baby sweetcorn or sliced waterchestnuts - not always keen on the corn
That looks great! and with a bottle of wine together we have a winner!
Hey Phil E. Just thought you should know:
Zuǒ Zōngtáng, 1st Marquess Kejing of the Second Class.
Spelled Tso Tsung-t’ang and known simply as General Tso or General Tsuo to Western Europeans
He was a Chinese statesman and military leader.
Looks delicous! Thanks for sharing it. Interesting feedback about General Tso!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there that celebrate it!
kc
I don’t think I have ever had General Tso’s chicken but it looks really tasty!
General Tso looks tempting after turkey today! Thanks for sharing.
This is an amazing looking recipe which is totally enhanced by the photos. It is incredible how the spice and sweet seem to compliment each other and the taste buds go off on an adventure of their own.
Thanks
This recipe looks fantastic, the only thing I was concerned about were the measurements for the sauce, is that all the sauce required? It seems like so little sauce to me.
I think you have one of the best looking recipe web sites I have ever seen, your tastes are similiar to mine. The pictures of your recipes are amazing, I have printed just about every recipe along with a picture of the recipe & have placed them in protective pages in a binder. Your recipes are outstanding! I love it when I recieve a new email from your site with your newest recipe addition. Keep up the great work!, & please let me know if that really is all the sauce needed for the General Tso’s Chicken.
Thanks-
WOW! This, I have been looking for quite sometime! I’m going to ask someone to try this out and see if it has the same taste as the one we ate sometime ago!
Beautifully delicious. Chinese food is my favorite, and this recipe makes creating it simple and enticing.
Wendy - thanks for the compliments. About the sauce - the sauce basically only makes enough to coat the chicken, if you want extra I would suggest doubling it. I hope you enjoy the recipe.
Pretty much doubled the recipe except the batter for the chicken, which was more than enough. Aside from the smell of deep fried oil permeating the house after frying the chicken, this was awesome! Didn’t have any rice wine so I substituted apple juice with a little gin, (a very acceptable replacement.) Will definately make this again and again! Kudos!
I can’t wait to make this dish.
Has anyone tried doing this just in the wok with no deep fryer?
Well I tried it last week, sadly we are a little short on equipment and ingredients in our new apartment. So I had to somewhat shallow fry in batches in a saucepan, I used dried chilli flakes instead of whole chillies, and I had to use mirin and white wine vinegar and soy as the sauces.
And, well… it was absolutely delicious! Definitely recommend using thigh meat for the chicken too.
I just made this about 20 minutes ago, and its all gone! Realllllllly good. ^^
This looks just yummy…I was wondering about the rice wine, is it necessary or can I skip it?
Certainly the most awesome thing I’ve seen on the web-just amazing….it is the best! One thing though, and I hate to be a wet blanket on this…is it possible, just bear with me on this for a moment, that the third picture down is photoshopped?
Tinna - I wouldn’t skip it but you can try. If you cannot find it dry sherry would work in its place. Hope this helps.
shopkeeper - no pictures on this blog are photoshopped in any way.
WOW this looks amazing! Thanks for sharing
zesty
I just wanted to compliment you on your website. I stumbled upon it and was pleasantly surprised to see that each and every recipe is one that I could not wait to try. Simply the best website I have ever come across. I’m trying to compile a cookbook for my daughters who are just out of college as they always call home for “moms” recipes. I’m adding these to that cookbook, with compliments to you of course. Thank you for your hard work. I’ve not tried them yet, but it’s obvious by the comments and beautiful pictures that you must be a superb “one of a kind” cook.
Excellent recipe!!!! Delicious!!!
Holy crap that looks delicious
I just finished eating this. I have to say….
I LOVED IT!! It turned out looking just like the picture and tasted just as good. Thank you for posting it.
I have always wanted to try General Tso’s chicken, but I have an allergy to seseame seeds. This recipe is sans seseame!
I plan on making this again soon!
Thanks again.
I have plans on making this as General Tso’s is the one and only chinese meal I order. I’m not a big fan of spicy foods though and was wondering how hot this actually is? I usually order mine mild, would I just add less chilis to the oil in step 4? Thanks so much, it looks fabulous and I can’t wait to try it.
Kelly - It is not very hot. To play it on the safe side, yes you could just add less chilis. Remember, you do not actually eat the chilis though, they are VERY HOT
Enjoy.
I tried this recipe last night and it was very good. I made a few changes due to convenience. I used a very cheap white wine instead of the rice wine, chicken breasts instead of thighs, and I used thai dragon peppers. I also omitted the green onions. I was afraid the substitutions would negatively affect the outcome, but it really turned out good. I think one of the great things about this recipe is the flexibility it offers. Thank you for providing this easy and delicious recipe.
I’ve explored the rest of your blog and each time I reached a new page I found yet another recipe that I can’t wait to try. I’m looking forward to each new recipe you post–along with the great pics!
It didn’t turn out like anything like the Generals Chicken I have ever had. Though it was good! I didn’t have Rice Wine so I used sherry instead, which might have been the reason. Also I think the Generals Chicken I usually order has lots of garlic in it.
I made this for dinner tonight, it was great. Very light and just enough spice. I used chicken breasts as that’s what we had on hand and it still turned out very tender and juicy. Very easy and inexpensive family meal!
Just GREAT for the holidays!! So easy even I
can make it.
Thanks so much Clair
The pics looks so delicious !!!!!!!!
How would I make this spicier? I order at chinese restuarants and request spicy and it never seems to be spicy enough.
Ryan - Chop up the chili peppers in the sauce and eat them.
Was so amazed to find my favorite dish from when i was in the us in your blog.
Just cooked it, its really delicious.. what a takeaway hack
Anyway it tastes a little sweet, could it be that you meant 3 teaspoons of sugar??
I will try to vary that a little next time.
THANKS A LOT !!!!
Cheers from the UK
Ugu
by the way i used dry red wine instead of rice wine (probably not the 100% alternative).. did everything in a wok and in the end due to the sweetness put some soy sauce all over.. still very very delicious.
hmmm its probably not a good idea to cook it again this evening
Again, thanks Bobby , amazing recipe.
ugubabba - red wine would go almost just as good I think. Try cutting down on the sugar a little if it was too sweet. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe.
worth a look at:
http://blog.ted.com/2008/12/who_is_general.php
If you’ve eaten at multiple Chinese restaurants you will find variation on this dish at all of them. I’m half Chinese and worked at a restaurant my father is a partner in.
General Tso was a real general in China, but as all Americanized or other ized foods go, its adapted and presented for a market to be enjoyed and eaten by locals. Kung Pao is different in that it has peanuts and has a higher salt to sweet ratio. Yes, both are spicy. Use Cayenne or Thai red peppers, which I’m convinced are the same thing. And if you want more sauce, make more sauce.
If you go to China you won’t find this, but that is the beauty of modern cuisines, they change and adapt. If you want it made like your favorite restaurant, good luck. Every good chef has his secrets, and a kitchen with equipment that most of you don’t have in your home to recreate all the steps in a way to cook it the same.
Still, this recipe is a good foundation to make Genreal Tso’s chicken with your own style.
This recipe looks great. I love easy chicken recipes, but never seem to be able to make chinese recipes taste like I would find in a restaurant. I’m gonna give this one a try and see how I do!
When I initially made this a few weeks ago, it didn’t have the flavors/heat that I’ve grown accustomed to when I get it at my fav Chinese buffet.
I just made this again w/ a few adjustments and was very very pleased and glad I didn’t have to share. For added heat, I subbed 15 Japones chilies instead of my original de Arbol chilies. I re-hydrated the Japones for 30 minutes in a covered skillet w/ water that had been brought to a boil. In the sauce, I subbed sherry for the rice wine, added 3 garlic gloves and threw in some chicken stock, minced ginger and a generous amount of red pepper flakes. I also used the breast.
Don’t use the Japones unless you like heat. I grow my own habaneros…
I look forward to perfecting this dish and comparing it to the buffet version. Thanks for having this recipe on your site!
This was delicious. I think I’m going to make it again and make a lot more sauce, I didn’t have the heavy coating that the picture and the Buffet’s have.
Made this for dinner tonight with 3 arbol chiles instead of five (wasn’t sure how potent the chiles were, so I played it safe), and I found that it’s better than most of the restaurant versions I’ve had over the years. I might dress it up with a little ginger and garlic in the future, or toss in a few peanuts just to be a heretic, but overall this recipe just plain works. It ranks up there with my Shrimp in Lobster Sauce as the best Chinese restaurant-style dish I’ve ever made at home. I’m glad you posted it, and I’m glad I found it.
Thanks for the recipe, we tried this a couple of weeks ago and absolutely love it. We doubled the sauce though, since they didn’t look nicely coated with just one portion of the sauce. We also used the dried chili peppers, and we would have liked to have a little bit more heat in it. Do you have any recommendations on how I can make this more spicy in the future? Thanks again!!
I just made this recipe and it was delicious! I actually dropped the rice vinegar so I had to use regular white vinegar instead, which turned out fine. I poured the General Tso’s Chicken over some perfectly steamed broccoli. The end result was a dish with a picture perfect appearance and beyond imagination taste.
I actually took a picture of the dish. Visit to view the photo.
My only recommended would be to use fresh chilli peppers rather than dried ones. Split them in half for an added spicy flavor.
great recipe … yum
Also used it with fish (blue eye cod) pieces and it was delicious.
Teamed with snowpeas stirfried in sy sauce and sesame oil.
Trying prawns nexrt time.
this looks absolutely amazing!! General Tso’s is my all time favorite Chinese Chicken dish! I featured this over on Blissfully Delish today! http://blissfullydomestic.com/blissfully-delish/weekly-menu-plans/recipe-for-general-tsos-chicken/
Being from South Africa and living in the UK, I’ve never come across General Tso’s Chicken but I must admit it looks amazing!
Looks great - I used to run a small restaurant where we sometimes included a version of this - never got it looking quite as nice as that though
@Michelle - my restaurant was UK based, so there are some places - although to be fair, I got the recipe of the internet and modified it for the ingredients we could easily get.
I must say that when bloggers put the photos of the steps in their recipes it makes me so much more confident about what I’m doing. I am going to give this recipe a stab tonight.
Just made this for the Superbowl party I hosted and it was a hit. I did have to make about 7 batches of it but it was so quick and easy I will have to make it again for just my family soon.
The only difference with my dish was I added a teaspoon of chili garlic sauce to the pan right before I poured in the sauce which adds some heat to the dish and right at the end I through in some broccoli we had blanched for a minute or two. That’s the way they make it here in the Dallas area.
This is my favorite Chinese dish; I will not be buying it from a fast food places any time soon now that I know how easy this is to make! Thanks!
I wanted to ask though….at our local chinese buffet, the batter seems different. It is very crunchy and stays that way even with the sauce and seems very thick on the chicken.
Every recipe I have found for the batter is like this one and although it is good, I’d love to know what they do to make such a thick coating on the chicken. perhaps dip again in dry cornstarch?
Thanks again for a great recipe!
This is actually an American favourite, you seldom see it in Chinese restaurants in Canada. I like meat with heat and a little sweet so hopefully it’ll become more popular here.
Thanks for the recipe.
The recipe looks good, but it didn’t come out well for me. The sauce was very salty (which you’d expect with that much soy sauce I guess) and too thick (I had to use water to thin it out in the pan). Perhaps everyone else just neglected to mix the slurry before putting it in the pan? The chicken pieces did not fry well — the batter was soft and not cripsy, but perhaps I needed to fry it in the pan a little longer before adding the sauce. However, I find it hard to believe that the crispiness should come entirely from the second fry.
Sandi - It sounds like they are double breading the chicken. Roll the chicken bits in flour or cornstarch, then dip in beaten egg, then in flour or cornstarch again. This will also work better if you use a deepfryer.
Chef - Sounds like it came out about right. You may just need to make a few adjustments to tweek it to your taste. If you are looking for crispy chicken bits you have want to not use a batter at all but just dip the chicken in egg and roll in cornstarch and then fry.
I agree with Sandi. There is something they do in the restaurants that gives it that thick, crunchy coating. I have tried double frying as well. It starts off good and crunchy but if it sits for even a little bit in the sauce the crunch goes away and you know how long we have all seen this dish sit in our local “all you can eat Chineese buffet” Any suggestions?
David and Sandi - I have never had this chicken at the buffet with the crispy batter you are referring to but thinking back I have tried a recipe that did have a have thick crispy coating. Replace the slurry from this recipe for with this one and tell me if its what you are looking for.
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 egg, beaten
1 cup cornstarch
combine all ingredients, mix well, coat the chicken pieces with it and deep fry. Let me know how it turns out.
I tried this recipe a few nights ago, and am angry that I have been paying for this for so long!! This recipe is so easy and delicious! Now I can save and not order takeout! Thanks so much!
I am totally going to try this once I get in a kitchen!
Just got all the ingredients for this. Going to try it tonight. I only have chicken breast, so I will see how it comes out. Also went to two stores to fine Rice Wine, with no luck. Hopefully cooking sheery will do.
This turned out awesome! Only change I made was that I used crushed red peppers (2 TBS) and fried a clove of garlic w/ the peppers. Thanks for the recipe, this is definitely part of my kitchen repertoire.
P.S. If you use your wok to deep fry the chicken, put some clothes on first.
I doubled the sauce recipe and it wasn’t enough. You may want to triple it, but it tasted amazing and looked great! Thank you!
I made this recipe last night it came out perfect!!! My guest were so excited we are having chiense night this Saturday and trying out some other recipes! Thanks so much!
Bobby
I tried with 1 egg, soy sauce and 1 cup of corn starch and it’s still not the same.
Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE “your” recipe and it’s as close as it gets and delicious but it’s still different then what I get at our local buffet.
The consistency of the breading is different.
It’s coating is roundish and lumpy and coated very thick..the taste of the batter is different too.
If I figure it out I’ll let you know!
Thanks so much!
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve made this a few times and it’s mouth wateringly good!!! A simple but great recipe - I love it!
The first time I made it, I followed your instructions to the letter, but I couldn’t manage to keep the fried chicken crispy. As soon as the sauce was mixed with the chicken, the batter soaked it up and lost its crispyness. So the next time I made it I simply stir fried chicken pieces without any batter and added the sauce to it - WOW!!!
I even made a veggie version with a little sauce for the wife using green beans - that was good too!
BTW, how do you keep the chicken crispy?
Restaurants that have the perma-crispy will definitely deep-fry, and probably double-fry them if they want that consistently crispiness. I’d even guess they may even add a bit of sugar to the batter, which would caramalize in a deep fryer, reinforcing the crunchiness.
Personally, I dont have a deep fryer, but instead made sure to have a high temperature oil before I started frying mine. It’s all about the golden brown, which is the magical chemical reaction of fat and starch in high temps that taste sooo good and bring the crispiness. That said, the crispiness didn’t last too long after the sauce was done. Luckily, the disk didn’t last much longer so it didn’t really matter.
Also, for those who dig on spice, I added fresh serranno chilis and ginger, both julienned into super thin strips, to the stir-fry at the end. Mostly because my favorite g.tsos place had those flavors in their version. Results were fantastic, for me and mine
YMMV.
Hey Bobby! A while back I saw your recipe and just had to try it. Love the sauce so much and put a different spin on it; a salad!
http://www.greedygourmet.com/2009/04/27/general-tso’s-chicken-salad/
Thanks for inspiring me.
this is whats for dinner
lol thanks for posting this recipe, my parents anniversary came sooner than i expected and i needed an easy but fancy type of dish ya know haha i’m making it this evening. thanks loads
Would tempura work to get that slightly crispy/doughy texture everyone is looking for?