Easy Kung Pao Chicken at Home

This delicious Kung Pao Chicken recipe with stir-fried chicken in a spicy sour-sweet sauce with chiles and peanuts is better than takeout.

Kung Pao chicken is a classic Sichuan recipe consisting of marinated and stir-fried chicken in a zesty sweet and sour sauce that is garnished with green onions and fried peanuts. The dish can also be served with shrimp or vegetables and is commonly served with cooked long-grain rice.

This dish was created by a man named Ding Baozhen, who served as the governor of the Sichuan province and was later given the title Gong Bao, which is someone who helps protect the prince and translates to “palace guardian.” There are several stories about how this dish came to be, from him showing gratitude to a family for saving him as a child, to Ding supposedly loving to cook, then finally to Ding having personal chefs create dishes based on his preferences. Whatever the exact story is, this palace guardian, Gungbao, would eventually turn into kung pao, which is the dish we know today.

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Ingredients for this recipe:

For the Marinade:

• 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into ½” cubes
• 1 egg white
• 3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• coarse salt and pepper to taste
• 2 to 4 tablespoons cooking oil

For the Vegetables and Sauce

• 3 tablespoons cooking oil
• ½ cup unsalted peanuts
• ½ cup chicken stock
• 3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons black vinegar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 4 thinly sliced garlic cloves
• 1” piece of thinly sliced peeled ginger
• 2/3 cup dried chiles
• 1 teaspoon roughly minced Sichuan peppercorns
• 6 green onions, cut into 1” pieces