Ingredients:
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 copped
- 1/4 cup roasted peanuts or cashews
- 1 to 2 tbs. Fresh ginger shredded or very finely chopped.
Marinade:
- 2 tbs. corn starch
- 1 to 2 tsp. light soy
- 1 to 2 tsp. rice wine
- 1 small egg white
This shoud make a fairly dry marinade. This is important for the coating to come out right.
Sauce:
- 2 tbs. medium soy sauce
- 1 to 2 tbs. sugar
- 1 to 2 tsp. corn starch
- 1 to 2 tbs. rice wine.
- 1/2 to 1 tsp. rice vinegar
- 1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
Make sauce.
To cook:
Chop (ding!) the chicken and mix with the marinade. Set aside in fridge. 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! ‘Nuf said, you have been warned!!!!
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 toast 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.
