Americanized Chinese Chicken. General Tso I think...

Because this sounded good and the picture of it in my food and wine was too good to pass up I decided to make the ultimate Americanized Chinese food this last weekend. I mean how much more Americanized can fried chicken with an Chinese-style sauce get. After making it though I would make a few changes and forward people from the frying part, -cough- Lien -cough.- Since your fridge story, I'm not sure I want your roommates coming home finding you cowering behind a pot lid as you toss chicken pieces into hot oil....>_<

Here is the recipe with my altered changes as well.

General Tso's Chicken:

2 chicken breasts (the original recipe calls for thighs, really it's your preference)
1/4 cup of corn starch
1/4 plus 1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 large egg white
1 1/2 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon chile garlic sauce
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil plus more for frying
2 tablespoons very finely chopped fresh ginger, I really just have kind of chunky ginger, it's tasty!
2 large garlic cloves, minced
4 scallions (green onions) thinly sliced

two heads of broccoli
Olive oil for drizzling
spices

Rice

1. Start the rice in the rice cooker

2. Preheat oven to 450 for the broccoli

3. Combine 1/4 cup of cornstarch plus 2 tablespoons, and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, the egg white, and the sesame oil in a bowl and mix. Then cut up your chicken into bite size chunks. Add the chicken and coat in the marinade. Let it sit at room temp for 20 minutes.

4. Meanwhile cut up the broccoli. I like to long stemmy pieces. Put in a baking tin/glass pan. Then drizzle with olive oil and add salt and pepper. I also added garlic to it to make it more in theme with the dinner.

5. In a small bowl, like a soup bowl. Add the chicken broth, 1 talbespoon of cornstarch, chile garlic sauce, sugar, and remaining soy sauce. Whisk it together. Yes, whisk, it helps to break down the sugar.

6. In a small saucepan heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Add the ginger and the garlic and cook until fragrant, like a minute. The add the broth mixture and let it cook until thick and glossy. Now honestly this did not take 3 minutes when I made it and it never got very thick. So I took down the amount of chicken broth for this post, and hopefully that will help. It was still tasty though. If it still isn't thickening as much as you want, add a teaspoon of cornstarch and whisk it in.

7. Once the oven is preheated add the broccoli. It worked well to do this for me at this point, but you can always do it sooner. Just keep an eye on it for when it starts to get nice and browned. See roasted veggies recipe for more explicit details.

8. In a large skillet and I do mean large. I didn't use a big enough one. :-( But in a large skillet, heat about 1/4 inch of oil. The original recipe says for 1/2 inch, but really you could still fry it with 1/4 inch. Once hot and shimmering, Lien be careful. Then add the chicken SLOWLY. I tried using chopsticks for it, and am not an adept enough Asian...yep Asian now, and quickly realized I could slowly pour it in. But do be careful as the oil will most likely splatter. Cook the chicken until very browned and crisp, turning a couple times as well. It doesn't take long, like 4 minutes if that. Then drain your chicken on paper towels. Lien, use a slotted spoon or spatula for this as you dont need buckets of oil on your paper towels. After immediately add to your sauce with your scallions, stir until coated, about 30 seconds and then serve.

9. The rice and broccoli should be done as well at this point.

Yum!