Gong Bao Ji Ding (Sichuan Kung Pao Chicken) Recipe

A near-perfect weeknight dish based on the version from Chengdu.

Gong bao ji ding chicken on a plate with white rice.

Serious Eats / Liz Voltz

Why It Works

  • Marinating chicken breast with salt and soy sauce and coating it in cornstarch helps ensure that it stays moist during its brief cooking period.
  • Infusing oil with chiles and Sichuan peppercorns provides the signature má-là (hot and numbing) flavor in this dish.
  • Cutting all the main ingredients to roughly the same size encourages even cooking and better presentation for chopsticks.

What does the phrase "real deal" mean to you? I hope it doesn't mean "most authentic" because, if so, I'll prove myself a liar before the end of this story.

For those of you keeping score at home (I know you're out there), yes, this is the third recipe for kung pao chicken that I've published here on Serious Eats in the last seven years. The first was my real deal kung pao chicken, which was based off of a recipe I learned from a Sichuan chef who worked around Boston. That version was funky and fiery with fermented chile bean paste, chicken thighs, and leeks.

The second was my takeout-style kung pao chicken, a decidedly milder version made with bell peppers and celery, just like those Upper West Side Chinese takeout joints I visited as a kid growing up in New York.

The version I'm sharing today is based upon the kung pao chicken I tasted at the source in Sichuan Province. As it turned out, the actual real-deal stuff in Chengdu was decidedly milder and simpler, yet more nuanced, than the fiery version I'd been cooking up at home. And with a cooking time of mere minutes and prep that can be done while your rice is cooking, it's a near-perfect weeknight dish.

Rather than getting smacked across the tastebuds with funky fermented bean paste, I got a nose-tingling and tongue-numbing whiff of citrusy Sichuan peppercorn. Instead of an intense mix of minced garlic, ginger, and scallions coating every morsel of chicken, the garlic and ginger flavors were gentle background notes, and the scallions were tender nubs interspersed with the chicken. No fatty, robust chicken thigh in the Chengdu version; instead, there were cubes of tender, moist chicken breast coated in a sweet, hot, and vinegary glaze.

Seasoning Gong Bao Ji Ding

When I started working to recreate this dish back at home, I didn't have to go much further than Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice. Her version starts with a handful of dried hot red chiles bloomed in oil along with some Sichuan peppercorns. This step allows the flavor of the chiles and the peppercorns to add a gentle fragrance to every bite without giving you the overwhelming metallic hit that powdered peppercorns can.

Cutting small dried red chiles into small pieces with scissors.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

The easiest way to prepare the chiles is to snip them into one-centimeter pieces with some kitchen shears, then shake out the excess seeds, which can make the dish too spicy. Sichuan peppercorns are not spicy at all, but rather have a unique mouth-numbing sensation that complements the heat of chiles very well (a combination known as má-là). You can find Sichuan peppercorns in most Asian markets these days, or if not, you can easily order them online. The flavor in Sichuan peppercorns is all in the husks, so any small twigs or dark hard seeds you find should be picked out and discarded.

Cooking the Chicken

From there you stir-fry cubes of chicken breast that have been marinated with soy sauce, Shaoxing wine (you can use dry sherry in its place), cornstarch, and salt.

Chicken breast cut into bite-size cubes on a bamboo cutting board next to a knife.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Chicken breast has a reputation for being dry or bland, but with proper cooking (read: not overcooking), it can be as juicy and tender as you could hope for, with a mild flavor that better showcases the flavor of the wine. Meanwhile, the salt and soy sauce in the marinade help it to retain moisture (via their brining action), while the cornstarch provides a dual purpose: insulating the exterior of the chicken against drying out and turning stringy, and giving the sauce an absorptive surface to cling to.

Finishing the Dish

From here, I stray from her recipe, but only slightly. Rather than adding garlic, ginger, and scallions all at once, I add the garlic (cut into thin slices) and ginger (julienned into fine matchsticks) first in order to get some of their flavor into the oil. Incidentally, if you like a more powerful garlic or ginger flavor (or simply lack the knife skills for julienning and thin-slicing), you can grate them both on a microplane or mince them by hand.

Next come the peanuts and scallions. For the peanuts, typically you'd use raw ones that have been fried golden brown in oil. Unfortunately, raw peanuts can be a little hard to find and, moreover, roasted peanuts work nearly as well in this dish and require no prep other than opening a jar. For the scallions, I use the firm white and pale green parts only, cut into roughly peanut-sized pieces.

Finally, my version gets finished with a simple sauce made from a mixture of soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, Chinkiang vinegar, and honey, bound together with just a touch of cornstarch. (I find even the smallest amount of sesame oil, a common ingredient in this dish, to be distracting, but you can add a few drops if you'd like.) Even with the most precise measurements, stir-frying is an inherently unpredictable craft, so you should be prepared for some on-the-fly adjustments. If the sauce doesn't thicken as fast as the recipe suggests, let it sit just a bit longer. Or, if, as frequently happens to me now that I have a very powerful burner at home, the sauce thickens too fast, add water or chicken broth a tablespoon at a time until it forms a gorgeous, shiny glaze.

The whole dish cooks in about half the time it took you to read this article. It's hard to think of an easier weeknight meal.

Unlike many stir-fries, wok hei—the smoky "breath of the wok" achieved by stir-frying over extreme heat—plays only a minor role in the flavor of kung pao chicken. Still, you don't want to crowd the pan to the point where the chicken steams instead of frying, so I wouldn't recommend making more than a single (two-serving) batch at a time. If you must serve a larger group, cook in batches and combine everything at the end. (Or better yet, just do what I do and serve a wider variety of small plates).

Kung pao chicken in a blue and white bowl with chopsticks. White rice in a bowl on the side.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

So what do I call this recipe now? Realer Deal Kung Pao chicken? Realest Deal? How about I keep it simple and just call it plain old "Kung Pao Chicken" and we can retcon my intent by claiming that by calling that other version "real deal," I really meant "spicy and funky."

Is this recipe better than the other two versions? Let's just say it's more "authentic" and I'll just let you interpret that as you will.

By the way, you can catch a quick video of me cooking this dish here on my YouTube channel. Finally, if you wish to scale this recipe up to serve more than two people, please see the recipe notes below.

This recipe is an early version of one that appears in The Wok: Recipes and Techniques, published by W.W. Norton & Co.

August 2017

Recipe Details

Gong Bao Ji Ding (Sichuan Kung Pao Chicken) Recipe

Prep 5 mins
Cook 10 mins
Active 15 mins
Total 15 mins
Serves 2 servings

Ingredients

For the Chicken:

  • 2 small boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 12 ounces (340g) total, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

  • 2 teaspoons (10ml) light soy sauce (see note)

  • 2 teaspoons (about 5g) cornstarch

  • 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Shaoxing wine (see note)

  • 1 large pinch kosher salt

For the Sauce:

  • 2 tablespoons (30ml) Chinkiang vinegar (see note)

  • 1 tablespoon (15ml) honey

  • 1 tablespoon (15ml) Shaoxing wine

  • 2 teaspoons (10ml) light soy sauce (see note)

  • 1/2 teaspoon (about 2g) cornstarch

  • 1/4 cup water or homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock, as needed

For the Stir-Fry:

  • 3 tablespoons (45ml) vegetable oil

  • 6 to 12 small dried red chiles (such as árbol), stems removed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces with scissors, seeds discarded

  • 1 teaspoon (about 2g) Sichuan peppercorns, reddish husks only (stems and black seeds discarded)

  • 4 medium cloves garlic, thinly sliced

  • 1-inch knob ginger, peeled and cut into fine matchsticks or grated

  • 6 medium scallions, white and pale green parts only, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

  • 3/4 cup roasted peanuts (about 5 ounces; 150g)

Directions

  1. For the Chicken: Combine chicken, soy sauce, cornstarch, wine, and salt in a small bowl and turn until well mixed and chicken is evenly coated in a thin film of the cornstarch paste. Set aside.

    Chicken evenly coated in a thin film of the cornstarch paste in small bowl.

    Serious Eats / Liz Voltz

  2. For the Sauce: Combine vinegar, honey, wine, soy sauce, and cornstarch in a small bowl. Stir together with a fork until no clumps of cornstarch remain.

    Vinegar, honey, wine, soy sauce, and cornstarch combined in a small bowl.

    Serious Eats / Liz Voltz

  3. To Stir-Fry: Pour a small amount of oil into the bottom of a large wok or skillet and rub around with a paper towel. Place over high heat and preheat until smoking. Add remaining oil and immediately add chiles and Sichuan peppercorns. Stir-fry until fragrant but not burnt, about 5 seconds. Immediately add chicken and stir-fry until there are no longer pink spots on the exterior (chicken will still be raw in center at this stage), 45 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes.

    A four-image collage showing chiles being cooked in a smoking wok, with chicken then being added and cooked until no pink remains.

    Serious Eats / Liz Voltz

  4. Add garlic and ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, about 10 seconds. Add scallions and peanuts and stir-fry for 30 seconds.

    A two-image collage showing scallions and peanuts with garlic and ginger in wok.

    Serious Eats / Liz Voltz

  5. Add sauce and stir-fry until all the ingredients are coated evenly and the chicken is cooked through, about 1 minute, adding water 1 tablespoon at a time if necessary to keep the sauce from clumping. Serve immediately with steamed white rice.

    A two-image collage showing the contents of wok with sauce being added, and then the chicken on a plate with rice.

    Serious Eats / Liz Voltz

Special Equipment

Wok

Notes

You can use dry sherry in place of the Shaoxing wine.

You can find Chinkiang vinegar online or use Chinese black vinegar or even balsamic vinegar in its place.

Light soy sauce is typically thinner and saltier than the dark soy sauce used in some Chinese recipes. You might find bottles of low-sodium soy sauce labeled “light.” That is not what you’re looking for in this recipe. You can use Japanese shoyu or tamari in its place if you can’t find Chinese light soy sauce.

Sichuan peppercorns can be found in most Asian markets or ordered online.

This recipe serves 2 as a main course. Trying to double the recipe will lead to poor results as you won’t be able to maintain enough heat to sear the chicken. If you want to double the recipe, cook the chicken and vegetables in two separate batches, following the recipe through the end of Step 5 and transferring the cooked chicken and vegetables to a large bowl on the side. When you’re ready to finish, add all of the cooked chicken and vegetables (both batches) back to the wok over high heat, stir in the double batch of sauce, and toss until coated. You can also cook this recipe in a large Western-style skillet, though the flavor will not be quite the same.

Read More

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
1174 Calories
66g Fat
75g Carbs
78g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 2
Amount per serving
Calories 1174
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 66g 84%
Saturated Fat 10g 48%
Cholesterol 145mg 48%
Sodium 1326mg 58%
Total Carbohydrate 75g 27%
Dietary Fiber 14g 49%
Total Sugars 17g
Protein 78g
Vitamin C 20mg 102%
Calcium 187mg 14%
Iron 6mg 33%
Potassium 2065mg 44%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)