General Tso's Chicken

 

I love Chinese food, but always find chicken dishes a little suspect.  Even on the Wegman's wokery bar the sesame chicken is always made of some kind of mystery chicken.  Not exactly white meat, kind of fatty... not exactly what I'd serve to myself or my family.  I like making Chinese dishes at home where I can make sure the chicken has all the gross fat chopped off and I can add vegetables to the dish.  

This recipe was completely vegetable-free originally.  But we have a family dinner rule in this house- every dinner must have at least one fruit or vegetable.  Even on pizza night.  So I've added steamed vegetables here- you can substitute any kind of vegetables you and your family prefer.

And yes, I just recently did a General Tso's recipe.  You can find it HERE.  But this one looked interesting too, and different than the previous recipe, so I tried it with the family this week.  It's also a baked version of the famous stir-fry dish.

INGREDIENTS

Vegetable oil spray
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 large egg whites
5 cups (5 ounces) Kellogg's Corn Flakes cereal, finely crushed
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of all visible fat, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 2/3 cups water
1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup apricot jam
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons canola oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Raw vegetables- your choice (I used broccoli, carrots and peppers here)

DIRECTIONS
 
If you're cooking rice- get it started first.  Cook white or brown rice according to directions.

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray rack with oil spray.

Spread flour into shallow dish. Whisk egg whites until foamy in second shallow dish. Spread Corn Flakes crumbs into third shallow dish.. Working in batches, dredge chicken in flour, dip in egg whites, then coat with Corn Flakes, pressing gently to adhere.  Place on cooking sheet.


Remember when coating- one hand wet- one hand dry.  This will help avoid turning your hands into catcher's mitts and making the entire process messy and sticky!

Bake until chicken coating is brown and crisp, 12 to 15 minutes.

Steam vegetables until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a wok or skillet cook garlic over medium-high heat in 1 TBS of oil for 2 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Add in water, soy sauce, apricot jam, hoisin, cornstarch, and vinegar.  Bring to simmer, and cook until thickened, about 2 minutes. Add in ginger.  Remove from heat, cover, and keep warm.

When chicken is cooked, return sauce to simmer over medium-low heat. Add cooked chicken and toss to coat. Serve.

NUTRITION

Makes 4 servings.  Per serving: Cal 490, Fat 8g, Sat Fat 1.5g, Chol 110mg, Carb 62g, Protein 44g, Fiber 2g, Sodium 1410mg
   

VERDICT

If you're looking for something to curb a Chinese take-out craving, this aught to do it.  If you're looking for something to make up quick along the lines of "pick up in 15 minutes," this is not that recipe.  Nor is it a breeze to clean up.  Lots of bowls, pans, woks and utensils.  

But it is good.  Very good.

I'm not quite sure why you go through all the effort to make extra crispy chicken- it gets completely soggy within seconds of being stirred into the sauce.  But it's tasty and you know all of the ingredients are fresh (and not mystery chicken!)