As long time readers know, cooking, for me, is yet another hobby of mine.
Most of the time I’ll just throw something together it’ll be ‘good’, and we’ll move on.
And, I rarely get to eat Chinese food around here, as my wife doesn’t tend to like it much. Fortunately she works often, and I’ve been circling in on a favored dish of mine for quite some time: General Tso’s chicken. Now, I’m SURE there are loads of recipes for this online, but what’s the fun in THAT? It’s been trial and error.
The other night, I had a bad day, and she was home. I told her I wanted to experiment, and she agreed. Intent on bringing it all together at last, I was frustrated to find some of the key ingredients had been lost due to a recent fridge failure incident. SO…I made due….and came up with something even better. When the boss said ‘you need to write that one down’, I knew we were on to something special. So, this weekend, we made a final batch, fixing the few mistakes we made last time.
So, here it is, some kind of bastard cross between General Tso’s and Orange Chicken.
The Sauce:
1 1/2 Cup Chili Sauce (Ketchup will work as well)
1/4 Cup Orange Juice (add this last, little less/more to taste)
1/2 Cup Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup Red Wine Vinegar
1/3 Cup Sugar
2/3 Cup Brown Sugar
2 cloves Garlic, minced
pepper sauce to taste*(I like Cholula brand, about 2 TBS (Tobasco, etc))
1 TBSP Rosemary
1 1/2 tsp Ginger
Pepper to taste
3 TBSP Corn starch
Throw that all in a sauce pan and simmer until thickened to the desired consistency.
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The Chicken:
Cube a bunch of boneless/skinless chicken breasts. Take a bit of that sauce above (about 1/3 or enough to cover) and marinade that chicken for 2-24 hours.
In a baggie, mix:
3 cups Flour
2 TBSP Curry powder
2 tsp pepper
Take that marinaded chicken and dunk it in the flour mixture, and spread out onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes, until cooked.
Now, transfer that to a pan/wok sprayed with pam, and stirfry with your favorite veggies. Pour the rest of the sauce over the top, and serve.
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