Easy General Tso's Chicken (With Shortcuts)
What do you do when you are craving your favorite Chinese chicken dish, General Tso's Chicken, and you can't get to a take out restaurant? You make your own in 20 minutes with ingredients you may already have in your pantry and fridge! Homemade sauce recipe in the notes.
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken breasts cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil or stir fry oil or olive oil
- 1 14.5-oz bottle General Tso's sauce
- 2 cups cooked long-grain white rice I prefer parboiled
Instructions
- Heat a large nonstick or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add oil. Add chicken cubes and quickly spread then out into a single layer. Do not stir at this point.
- Cook about 3 minutes on this side or until browned. Turn each piece over with tongs or stir, then turn over the ones that are remaining. Cook about 2 more minutes or until chicken is browned on the other side and no pink remains in center.
- Stir in bottle of sauce and cook 1 minute or just until thoroughly heated. Serve over cooked rice.
Notes
Quick & Easy Homemade Sauce for General Tso's Chicken
1 cup chicken broth (vegetable broth or even water with chicken bouillon cube)
¼ cup ketchup or hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar (apple cider vinegar will work in a pinch)
1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce OR Siracha sauce with one pressed clove garlic (sweet chili sauce will work in a pinch with a minced clove of garlic) [If you don't like it very spicy, reduce this to 1 teaspoon and taste it first]
1 tablespoon brown sugar
¾ teaspoon dark sesame oil
⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper or 3 or 4 small dried chili peppers (omit if you like it on the milder side) It will still by spicy
3 tablespoons soy sauce (I had low-sodium)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Combine first 7 ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. While mixture is coming to a boil, combine soy sauce and cornstarch. Add the soy sauce slurry to the boiling mixture and stir constantly for 1 minute.
