An easy General Tso’s chicken recipe that yields crispy chicken without deep-frying. It also uses much less sugar while maintaining a great bold taste. Once you’ve tried it, you’ll skip takeout next time because it’s so easy to make in your own kitchen and the result is just as good. {Gluten-Free Adaptable}
Today I want to share my interpretation of General Tso’s Chicken that yields a great taste like the restaurant version, but is more practical for any cook to make in their home kitchen. The best things about this recipe are:
- You will use much less oil to cook the chicken. No deep-frying required. The chicken will end up super crispy and stay that way, even after it’s been tossed in the sauce.
- The tangy sauce is well balanced, rich, and sticky. It also uses less sugar than the mainstream recipes out there.
- No wok required! You can use a regular skillet to make this dish taste great.
Ingredients
What cut of chicken to use
I always prefer to use chicken thighs for General Tso’s chicken, because it yields a very juicy result without worrying about overcooking. Although you can use chicken breast and create awesome results, as well.
Just remember to cut the chicken into 1” to 1 1/4” (2.5 to 3 cm) pieces. The size of the chicken pieces matters because you want the surface to turn crispy with the inside just cooked through at the same time.
The best vinegar to use
Many General Tso’s chicken recipes call for rice vinegar. But if you really want the rich tangy taste like the restaurant version, you should use Chinkiang vinegar instead.
Chinkiang vinegar (Zhenjiang vinegar, 镇江香醋) is a type of Chinese black vinegar. It is made from various grains and is aged until the color turns dark brown or inky black. It has a rich, pungent, and tart flavor, sometimes with a hint of sweetness. It has a fermented malty taste and a woody character that distinguish it from the light-colored and fruity rice vinegar.
These days it’s quite easy to find it in an Asian market and even at regular grocery stores. You can also shop for it on Amazon.
Mise en place
When you’re ready to cook, your table should have:
- Chopped aromatics (ginger, garlic)
- Marinated chicken coated with cornstarch
- Mixed sauce
- Dried chili pepper
How to cook General Tso’s Chicken
To cook General Tso’s chicken, you need to:
- Spread out the chicken pieces in a hot pan
- Pan fry the chicken until golden brown
- Transfer the cooked chicken onto a plate and let it cool off a bit
- Saute the aromatics
- Pour in the sauce
- Once the sauce thickens, add the chicken back and toss everything together.
Note, it’s very important to remove the chicken from the pan. Letting the chicken cool off a bit before adding it back into the skillet is a crucial step for keeping the coating crispy. Plus, your pan will become very hot after you fry the chicken. I usually remove the pan from the heat for a few seconds before adding the aromatics, so it won’t burn the ingredients.
How to make crispy chicken without deep frying
Here is the trick to creating crispy chicken with a crunchy coating that is like the takeout you’d get from Chinese restaurants, without making a mess.
Simply use the formula: oil + salt + egg + cornstarch
This combination creates a dry batter that is suitable for pan-frying. Normally, deep frying requires at least a few cups of oil. For this recipe, you only need a regular skillet and 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of oil to pan-fry the chicken. Not only does it yield an extra crispy exterior and juicy, flavorful meat, but the chicken also stays crispy even after you coat it with sauce.
Perfect party food
This General Tso’s chicken makes a great party food. The batter holds up really well and the chicken will remain crispy even if you let the dish sit for a while after cooking. If you’re hosting a dinner party and have multiple stir-fried dishes, you can make this one in advance and keep it in the oven on low heat until you’re ready to serve it.
This dish is so addictive that I can finish one pound of chicken in one sitting. I highly doubt you’ll have any leftovers when you cook it. But just in case you do need to reheat the dish, here is a good way. You can preheat your oven to 350 F and spread the chicken onto a baking dish. Once the chicken is heated through, it will be pretty crispy again.
More Chinese takeout recipes
- Kung Pao Shrimp (宫爆虾球)
- Beef with Oyster Sauce (蚝油牛肉)
- Chinese Lemon Chicken
- Crispy Peanut Butter Chicken
- Easy Egg Foo Young
- Salt and Pepper Chicken
General Tso’s Chicken (Crispy Chicken Without Deep-Frying)
Ingredients
- 1 lb(450 g) boneless skinless chicken thighs , cut into 1-inch (2-cm) pieces (or breasts)
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 1 egg , beaten
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
Sauce (or pre-made General Tso’s Sauce)
- 1/3 cup chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
- 2 tablespoons Chinkiang vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Stir fry
- 3 tablespoons peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 7 to 8 dried Chinese chili peppers (*Footnote)
- 2 teaspoons minced ginger
- 4 cloves garlic , minced
Instructions
- Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl and set it aside.
- Combine the chicken pieces, vegetable oil, and salt in a big bowl. Mix well and let it marinate for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Add the beaten egg into the bowl with the chicken. Stir to mix well. Add the cornstarch. Stir to coat the chicken until it forms an uneven coating with a little dry cornstarch left unattached.
- Heat the stir-fry oil in a heavy-duty skillet until hot, until it just starts to smoke. Add the chicken all at once and spread it out into a single layer in the skillet. Separate the chicken pieces with a pair of tongs or chopsticks.
- Cook without touching the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the bottom turns golden. Flip to brown the other side, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a big plate and remove the pan from the stove. Let cool for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Place the pan back onto the stove and turn to medium heat. You should still have 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil in the pan. Add the dried chili pepper, garlic, and ginger. Cook and stir a few times until it releases its fragrance.
- Stir the sauce again to dissolve the cornstarch completely. Pour it into the pan. Stir and cook until it thickens, when you can draw a line on the bottom with a spatula without the sauce running back immediately.
- Add back the chicken pieces. Stir to coat the chicken with sauce, 30 seconds. Transfer everything to a plate immediately. Serve hot as a main dish.
Notes
- You can use dried Chinese or Korean chili peppers in the dish. They add aroma to the sauce but don’t really add spiciness. If you want the sauce to be spicy, you should cut the peppers in half to release the seeds. Or you can add a small pinch of cayenne pepper to the sauce mixture.
Very enjoyable, i have never seen this dish before (I’m not American) loved the soft delicate flavours but I will cut back a bit on the cornstarch (“cornflour” here) next time as it went a bit gluggy on me. Will definitely try again. Thanks!
Take out experience achieved! The family loved it.
Thank you so much for this recipe. It’s fairly fool-proof, easy, and delicious. I substituted Szechuan pepper flakes for the peppers, as we didn’t have any whole peppers. I added green beans to the pan when I combined the chicken with the sauce. My husband said this was better than our usual takeout place.
Oh holy cow don’t open more than one pepper. Great recipe otherwise.
Fantastic!!!. I made the batter a few hours before and let the chicken set in the fridge. It was so quickly done afterwards. And absolutely delicious. I don’t need to use take away anymore. Your recipies are faster done as if I would go or drive to the take away and back home.
Delicious. Next time I’ll use less sugar, though. This recipe is too sweet, giving Chinese food a bad name.
Wow! This dish was a hit in my family. Thank you so much for this delicious recipe.
Excellent! Love your recipes and your explanations, thank you! I have made several of your dishes but forget to come back to make a comment. All very good!
This looks amazing! Just a quick question: I have a cast iron skillet and a stainless steel skillet or a 6qt Dutch oven. Which would you recommend to make this in?
I’d definitely use the cast iron pan. Beceause of the starch in the marinade, the meat can stick to the stainless steel or the dutch oven pretty badly.
Made this tonight for my Chinese daughter. She and I loved it! Will make again. We enjoy many if your recipes regularly. Your recipes are always well written and easy to follow.
I can’t stop making these recipes. General’s chicken was wonderful ! My wife (who thinks she is allergic to msg) can finally eat authentic Chinese food!
Every time I try to make Asian food it’s just okay..but this was an excellent recipe and my whole family loved it!! Def saving this one!
First of all, love your recipes. I have been trying them one by one. Curry chicken – amazing, Sweet and sour chicken amazing. But General Tso was a bit too vinegary for my taste buds. The vinegar seemed to overpower the other flavors. (I did use Chinkiang). Next time I will reduce the vinegar and increase the aromatics. Cheers.
This!, every cook should make this dish once a week…
I simply love this Chinese dish.
Edward, I totally agree. It was phenomenal! Next week 🙂 I will stir fry some colorful vegetables to go along with it.
To make the cooking process simpler, I much prefer deep frying. Much less flipping and tossing, and chicken ends up perfectly cooked on all sides. I also prefer using a 50/50 combination of rice flour and cornstarch in my batter instead of cornstarch only. Every bit as crunchy but better colour and taste. The end result was fantastic! Thanks so much for inspiring me to prepare this for dinner tonight… and absolutely again and again
I’ve tried a number of different recipes for General Tso’s Chicken (aka, General Tao’s Chicken) and this is the best one yet. The chicken is crispy, the spices are perfect, the texture is great, and it’s easy to prepare. Many recipes are overly sweet, indistinguishable from sweet and sour chicken. The thing I love about Maggie’s recipes is that they each have their own flavor. Too many Chinese recipes result in dishes that all taste (and look) the same. Thank you, Maggie! Your site is the BEST.
I had some vegetarian friends visiting and so I made this with cauliflower instead of chicken. It turned out good and got rave reviews. The only changes to the recipe were replacing the chicken with an equal weight of cauliflower florets, coating them with beaten egg, then costing them with cornstarch. I fried them just as I would the chicken but longer, until the cauliflower showed some definite char. This gave it some crispness and flavor. I added some one inch scallion pieces to the ginger, garlic, and chilis for variety, and I left off the broccoli accompaniment. My friends went home vowing to make this one of their favorite dishes.
Do you have a recommendation of a good premade general tso’s sauce? I can’t seem to find the ingredients to make it but I was hoping you knew of one that tasted as similar as possible to this recipe? Thanks!
I’m afraid I don’t have great recommendations since I do not use premade sauces.
Just made this and it’s delicious! The chicken did stay tender inside after cooking. I was a little worried because after adding the egg and cornstarch it was a big gooey mess, but I got them separated in the skillet and it worked out. Delicious!
Really liked this. Spicy hot and sweet is my favorite combination. Two mistakes I made: 1) using a non-stick pan; it’s nice for clean-up but doesn’t sear as well as a “naked” pan; and 2) I used avocado oil which has a high smoke point and I put the chicken in too soon being afraid I would burn it. Cooked nicely, but not to crispy. I made some notes to avoid this next time. Yes, will be making this again soon. Thanks.