Chinese Chicken Chunks with Peanuts in Spicy Sauce
Deep-fried chicken chunks in a water chestnut flour batter, tossed with crispy peanuts and scallions in a fiery sauce of chili-garlic paste, dark soy, red vinegar, and sesame oil. Authentic Chinese restaurant-style kung pao.
YIELD
6 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
15 minREADY
40 minYou know that dish at your favorite Chinese restaurant where the chicken is impossibly crispy, the peanuts are golden, and the sauce has that hot-sour-savory thing going on that makes you keep reaching for more? This is how they make it.
The secret starts with water chestnut flour mixed with egg white. It creates a batter so light and shatteringly crisp that regular cornstarch can’t compete.
The sauce is a balancing act of chili-garlic paste, dark soy, red vinegar, sesame oil, and dry sherry, simmered until everything melds.
Chicken, peanuts, scallions, and sauce come together in the final 60 seconds. Speed is everything at the end.
Pro Tips
- Bring the chicken breasts to room temperature before cutting and coating. Cold chicken drops the oil temperature and makes for uneven frying.
- Fry in small batches of 8 chunks or less. Patience here is what separates crispy from greasy.
- The peanuts keep cooking after you pull them from the oil. Take them out when they’re a light tan, not dark brown.
- Serve immediately after tossing in the sauce. Every second the chicken sits in liquid, the crust softens.
Ingredients
Directions
Preparation: Trim ends off green onions and cut light green and white part into 1 inch sections.
Mix all other sauce ingredients in 2-quart saucepan.
Reserve.
Pull skin off breasts, then pull chicken meat from bones.
Slice meat into 1 inch strips, then crosswise to make 1 inch chunks.
In bowl large enough to hold chicken, add egg white to water chestnut flour.
Beat mixture with a single chopstick (not an egg beater or whisk).
Stir chicken pieces into egg mixture to coat thoroughly.
Marinate 5 minutes.
Note: water chestnut flour gives a lighter crust than cornstarch, though the latter may be substituted.
Deep-frying: Heat cooking oil in wok or deep-fryer to medium heat (you’ll need more oil for deep-fryer).
Fry peanuts until they are a light tan color; if a test peanut browns quickly, turn down heat.
Remove peanuts with strainer or slotted spoon; drain on paper towel or paper bag.
Reserve.
Turn up heat slightly for chicken.
Test a chunk first: chicken should raise to surface immediately and brown in about 2 minutes.
Deep-fry coated chicken chunks until golden brown.
Deep-fry no more than 8 chunks at a time.
Use long chopsticks or spatula to keep pieces separate while they are frying.
Remove with long chopsticks or slotted spoon.
Reserve.
Sauce: While deep-frying chicken, heat sauce to simmer.
Add green onions and peanuts about a minute before serving.
At the last minute, add chicken pieces to sauce, mix quickly and serve.
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