General Tso's Chicken
Crisp fried chicken in a dark, sticky, chili-spiked glaze — sweet, sour, and savory in balance rather than just sweet. The American-Chinese icon done right.
General Tso’s chicken has almost nothing to do with the 19th-century Hunanese general it is named after. It was created by a Taiwanese chef, Peng Chang-kuei, and was originally savory and sharp rather than sweet. Its Americanization — more sugar, less vinegar, more batter — happened in New York restaurants over the following decades.
Cooking it at home is a chance to pull it back toward the middle. The version here uses three tablespoons of sugar against two tablespoons of black vinegar and three of soy sauce, which produces a glaze that reads as savory first and sweet second. That balance is the single biggest difference from the takeout container.
Everything else is the same technique as any fried-and-glazed dish: coat heavily in cornstarch, fry twice, reduce the sauce to a syrup before the chicken goes near it, and toss off the heat for as few seconds as possible. Cornstarch, not flour — it fries into a lighter, glassier shell that holds crunch far longer under sauce.
Instructions
- 1
Toss the chicken with the egg white, 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine, and a pinch of salt. Rest 15 minutes.
- 2
Whisk the sauce: both soy sauces, black vinegar, sugar, broth, remaining wine, and 1 teaspoon cornstarch. Keep it beside the stove.
- 3
Dredge the chicken heavily in the remaining cornstarch, pressing it on. Rest the coated pieces on a rack 5 minutes.
- 4
Heat the oil to 350°F and fry in batches for 4 minutes until light gold. Drain on a rack.
- 5
Raise the oil to 375°F and fry a second time, 90 seconds, until deep gold and audibly crisp.
- 6
Pour off all but a tablespoon of oil. Add the dried chilies and fry 15 seconds until they darken, then the garlic and ginger for 20 seconds more.
- 7
Pour in the sauce and boil hard for about a minute, until it turns syrupy and coats a spoon.
- 8
Off the heat, add the chicken and toss for 20 seconds. Scatter sesame seeds, add blanched broccoli around the edge, and serve at once.
Cook’s Notes
- Black vinegar is the backbone. Substituting rice vinegar or, worse, extra sugar is exactly how restaurant versions became one-dimensionally sweet.
- Boil the sauce down before the chicken goes in. Adding chicken to thin sauce means simmering it to reduce, which destroys the crust.
- The chilies are for aroma. Leave them whole and unbroken and they perfume the oil without making the dish punishingly hot.
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