Eva Pau's Kung Pao chicken recipe

Ingredients

Serves 2 people

  • 400g of uncooked skinless boneless chicken thigh/chicken breast cut into 3cm chunks
  • ½ small onion, cut into chunks
  • 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
  • 4 cm piece of ginger, skin taken off and sliced
  • 8g of small dried chillies, chopped
  • 1 tsp of Szechuan peppercorns
  • 50g of raw cashew nuts
  • 4 spring onion cut into 2cm pieces


Marinade for chicken:


Kung Pao Sauce:

  • 3 tbsp of light soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp of Chinese black vinegar
  • ½ slab of Chinese Cane sugar cut or broken into smaller pieces ( or 40g of brown sugar)
  • 1 tsp of potato starch (or cornflour) + 2 tbsp of cold water (mixed together)


Method

  1. Cut the chicken into small cubes, ( approximately 2 cm pieces) and put them in a bowl.
  2. Add all the marinade ingredients into the bowl with the chicken, mix well and set aside.
  3. Slice the onion into chunks, remove the skin from the cloves of garlic and thinly slice them.
  4. Remove the skin from the ginger by using a small teaspoon to scrap it off. Thinly slice them.
  5. Cut the chillies into 1 cm pieces and set aside.
  6. Mix the potato starch and cold water together, then add all the rest of the kung pao sauce ingredients and set aside.
  7. Heat 4 tbsp of oil in a hot wok. Add the cashew nuts and toast them in the oil for 2 minutes until they are slightly golden in colour. Remove them and set aside.
  8. Add the dried chillies, Szechuan peppercorns, onion and ginger slices into the hot wok with the leftover oil from toasting the cashew nuts. Now add the marinated chicken and stir fry for 3-4 minutes until the chicken is nearly cooked.
  9. Pour in the prepared sauce, toasted cashew nuts, spring onion and garlic. Stir well for 2 minutes until the sauce and ingredients are well combined and the sauce has thickened to coat the chicken. Ready to serve with some steamed jasmine rice.