This is one of my family’s absolute favorite recipes. If you like this when dining out, once you make this you’re likely to be spoiled and never order it out again.
The dish is made as 2 parts; batter fried chicken nuggets and the sauce. The chicken nuggets are then tossed in the sauce at the end and served immediately.
Batter –
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup beer
- 2 T light soy sauce
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 t baking powder
- 1/2 t salt
- 1/4 t white pepper
Sauce –
- 1/2 cup chicken broth or stock
- 5 cloves minced garlic
- 1 T minced ginger root
- 1 T cider vinegar
- 3 T brown sugar
- 4 T light soy sauce
- 2 T Chinese cooking wine (white wine will do)
Mix seperately 2 t cornstarch and 1 t sesame oil to thicken sauce
Misc Ingredients –
- 2 whole chicken breasts (~1.5 lbs)
- 6 dried hot chile peppers (+/- to suit tastes)
- 3 scallions (chopped ~1/4″)
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup corn starch
Directions –
Make batter, cut chicken breasts in ~1″ pieces and add to batter. Refrigerate for ~30 min.
Mix sauce and prep (chop) scallions.
Mix 1/2 cup flour & 1/2 cup cornstarch in re-sealable plastic bag and toss battered chicken in to coat. Fry (deep or wok) chicken till golden brown. Place chicken in bowl in oven on low to keep warm.
In clean hot wok add ~2 T vegetable oil. Add dried chile peppers (broken in half) to hot oil and stir till blackened.
WARNING: Try not to let the oil get smoking hot as you WILL make hot pepper fumes.
Once peppers are blackened add sauce and bring to boil. Add thickener (corn starch/sesame oil) to sauce and stir constantly till thickened. Add chicken nuggets to sauce and toss to coat. Serve immediately.
This dish is usually served with or on rice; either white or brown. Serves 3-4.