Ken Hom's Classic Kung Pao Chicken Recipe (2024)

The oil-blanching technique - fattening and wasteful - can easily be replaced by blanching the marinated chicken pieces in water, perhaps with a little oil added. Bring the water to a boil, add the chicken, turn off the heat, and wait five minutes. Then drain the chicken and proceed as directed. I like adding some green/red peppers, and also some chili paste with garlic and hoisin. Of course you can also reduce the quantity of peanuts as desired.

Taking cues from my favorite local joint's version, I added diced zucchini, red & yellow peppers, yellow onion, and mushrooms (Crimini). Reduced amount of chicken by half & managed to stir fry the chicken pieces in just a scant cup of canola oil, flavored with a few tbs. of sesame & peanut oil...much more economical & just as effective. Used equal amounts of ginger & garlic (4 tbs. each), and the result was fantastic. Even better than SF takeout!

The coating technique is very useful and should be transferable to other situations. In the future, I've got to cut back on the egg whites to make the coating less obvious. Each time I've tried this approach, I got a little too much egg. Another nice thing about this recipe is that it is pretty tolerant as to substitutions and additions. It is a great place to use odds and ends from the vegetable crisper.

Haters gonna hate....but they shouldn't. This dish comes together quickly but takes time if you're into mies en place. I found it best to measure and have everything ready to go before cooking begins as this dish moves quickly. It tasted wonderful and we will have it again and again.

Any suggestions on a good substitute for black rice vinegar? Tallahassee, FL is a little short on that as an option! Would regular rice vinegar work?

Pretty darn good. We added some veggies--carrots and celery, onions and bell peppers. This added to the prep time. One thing: I would not add the "1 remaining teaspoon of salt" recommended in Step 4. By that point, this recipe has enough salt via all that soy sauce. One more thing: instead of the peppers, I just sprinkled some red pepper flakes in with the veggies. Finally, my wok retained enough oil not to need those five tablespoons. All in all, this was a good recipe.

I've made this recipe several times and it comes out wonderfully every time. I'm surprised by the "25 minutes" -- I couldn't make it that fast with a gun to my head. But I love the egg white coating method. I like it with smaller pieces of chicken, and sprinkling a few scallions at the end as a garnish.

I've made this recipe three times and it was well-enjoyed on all three occasions. I substituted boneless, skinless thighs for the chicken breast, these have more flavor. Also I added thin strips of green and red bell peppers and a cup of diced onion (briefly sauteed together in the wok) to increase the vegetable content. And by the way blanching the chicken in very hot oil actually adds very little oil to the chicken.

My fam really liked it, I was so so. I poached the chicken in Asian Master Stock instead of throwing away the large quantity of expensive peanut oil. Added yu choi over rice for a complete meal.

We think cornstarch is not a good product. Whenever called for we use potato starch. Same results, better taste.

Not much effort for a lot of flavor. Delicious.

Sauce elements are very good. The preliminary step of velveting the chicken in oil is a subjective step. Not worth it in a home kitchen. You could velvet in water or just blow past that step like i did. So, I just dusted the salted chicken in corn starch and stir fried in batches and picked it up from there. It was good and the chicken (while unvelveted) was tender and good.

I like the flavors but the egg white wash did nothing for this dish. Kinda made it a weird texture. I agree with others that some veg would be good. Also, the oil splashed me pretty bad when I added the peppers. My bad, I should have known better.

Greasy and bland.

Ignore the naysayers - this recipe is fantastic! We've made it half a dozen times exactly as written, and our 10yo has named this his all-time favorite meal - all the adults we've served it to agree! A few minor shortcuts we've settled on: cutting the initial oil down by a factor of 3, throwing the chiles straight in with the peanut mixture when you mise, and skipping the chicken broth entirely - zero detriment to the final product. Don't sub for the black vinegar or the Shaoxing!

I'm confused. The description notes a "fussy step" of dipping the chicken in a mixture of egg white, sesame oil, and cornstarch. But that step never shows up in the recipe at all.You make the cornstarch mixture in Step 1 and pour it in the wok in Step 4?

Love the recipe, I would add more vegetables: Bell Pepper, and Chinese Eggplant.

Go easy on the salt.

For the black rice vinegar use one-part balsamic vinegar to one part of distilled white vinegar.

I added more scallions, garlic and 2 chopped sweet red peppers. And I used olive oil because that's all I had. Used rice vinegar - but it wasn't black! I messed up the egg white coating for the chicken but didn't hurt the great flavor! Maybe I'll leave egg white out next time...

Irene Kuo in the Key to Chinese Cooking details a basic cooking technique she calls velveting, which can be done in either oil (as used here) or water. I have always used the water technique for chicken. The coating only needs 1 egg white; combine & refrigerate 30 min. Then bring a quart of water w/ 1 T. of oil to a boil, lower to a simmer, and dump in the chicken pieces. Stir to separate until chicken turns white, then drain in a colander and proceed with the recipe.

Has anyone tried making this with an air fryer?

A tasty, adaptable/forgiving recipe. Don't have a wok so used a big cast iron skillet. Used thighs because I like them better. Cut oil by about half and only 2 egg whites (seemed too wet to add a 3rd) and it crisped up nicely. I still poured a lot of oil off after cooking chicken. Wanted a one pot meal so tossed in veggies (carrot, celery, bell pepper), then removed, before adding ginger and such. Couldn't get shaoxing wine so subbed mirin few splashes sherry vinegar and cut sugar by half.

I was missing spice on this—anyone else? Umami, sweet, but not spicy. Would try it again with a modification to add spice heat.

A really good recipe to riff off of. I halved the amount of chicken and doubled all the condiments as it would have been quite bland otherwise. I used fresh red chili and added red peppers, celery, and 8 cups of chopped bok choy and Choi sum to the chicken at the end for about 5 or 6 minutes. Delicious!

Delicious to start if you haven’t ever tried this Asian dish. I read all comments and hence didn’t put any additional salt. The taste was excellent. We found it on sweeter side though. Next time I will minus sugar and to spice up I will add crushed Sichuan pepper. Thank you NYT this goes in my recipe box now 😎!