🇨🇳 How to Make Kung Pao Chicken

Craving Kung Pao Chicken? On FoodNeverComes the food never actually comes — so here's how to make real Kung Pao Chicken at home, in about 25 min, with stuff you probably already have.

🛒 Ingredients

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• 300g chicken thigh, cut in 2cm cubes
• Marinade: 1 tbsp soy, 1 tsp cornstarch, 1 tsp Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
• 8–10 dried red chillies, snipped, seeds shaken out
• ½ cup roasted peanuts
• 3 cloves garlic + a thumb of ginger, sliced
• 3 spring onions: whites in chunks, greens saved for the end
• Sauce: 2 tbsp soy, 1 tbsp black or rice vinegar, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp cornstarch, 3 tbsp water
• 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns (optional — but they're the tingle)

👩‍🍳 Method

1. Toss the chicken in the marinade and let it sit 10 min while you chop everything else. Stir-fries end fast — everything must be ready before the pan gets hot.
2. Stir the sauce in a cup until the cornstarch disappears.
3. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok on high until it shimmers. Chicken in a single layer, no touching for 1 min, then stir-fry until golden, about 3 min. Remove.
4. Lower to medium; toast the chillies (and Sichuan peppercorns) in the oil 30 sec until darkened and fragrant — not black, or the whole dish tastes burnt.
5. Garlic, ginger and spring onion whites in for 30 seconds, then the chicken back in, then the sauce poured down the side of the wok.
6. It thickens in about 30 seconds. Toss in the peanuts and spring onion greens, one last toss, straight onto rice. Sweet, sour, hot and tingly — all at once.