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Kung Pao Chicken is a highly addictive stir-fried chicken with the perfect combination of salty, sweet and spicy flavours!
Make Chinese restaurant quality Kung Pao Chicken in your own kitchen with this easy to follow recipe. With crispy, tender, mouthwatering chicken pieces swimming in the most delicious, silky Chinese sauce, this is one Kung Pao chicken recipe that’ll be hard to pass up!
What Is Kung Pao Chicken
You’ve tried Sweet and Sour Pork, Chicken Cow Mein and Chinese Lemon Chicken, well now it’s time to meet the final boss – Kung Pao Chicken! This Kung Pao chicken recipe has been one of our most requested!
Traditionally, this Chinese chicken dish is a dry-stir fry; not a lot of sauce is added into Kung Pao chicken. However, with the flavour explosions you’ll experience eating this dish, you won’t need or want any more sauce. There’s so much flavour in this dish, it’s crazy!
Ingredients
There are six main ingredients you’ll need to make the perfect Kung Pan chicken:
- Chicken broth or stock (use low sodium) – you can also use water if you don’t have any broth on hand.
- Light soy – use light or low sodium if you can. Regular soy creates an unpleasant, salty sauce.
- Dark soy sauce – adds beautiful colour and flavour to the sauce.
- Hoisin sauce – more depth of flavour!
- Chinese black vinegar – or a good quality balsamic vinegar can be used instead.
- Chinese wine (Shaoxing) – to substitute you can use any of the following: dry sherry, gin, rice wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar.
For the stir fry, I’ve included broth, red and green bell peppers (or capsicums) and the traditional roasted peanuts. You can also add in diced celery, sliced carrots and/or zucchini!
Note: see recipe card at the bottom for full list of ingredients and measurements
How To Make Kung Pao Chicken
- Combine: skinless chicken breast boneless, shaoxing wine or dry sherry, light soy sauce, baking soda, cornstarch & cornflour in a shallow bowl; cover and marinate for 10 minutes (if time allows).
- Whisk: chicken stock, light soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, Chinese Shaoxing wine or dry sherry, dark soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sugar, cornstarch and cornflour sauce together until sugar dissolves; set aside.
- Heat: a large skillet, pan or wok over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, allow to heat up, then add marinated chicken. Fry chicken for 3-4 minutes while occasionally stirring, until edges are browned. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Add: remaining cooking oil into the same pan/wok. Stir in garlic, ginger, chili diced peppers (capsicums) and Sichuan peppercorns and stir fry for 1 minute.
- Pour: Give the prepared sauce a mix, then pour the mixture into the pan and bring it to a boil while stirring.
- When: it thickens slightly, add chicken back in and mix all ingredients through the sauce until the chicken is evenly coated and sauce has thickened
- Stir: in green onions, peanuts and sesame oil. Toss well and cook for a further 2 min to infuse flavours.
- Serve: immediately with steamed/cooked rice or fried rice!
I recommend serving your Kung Pao Chicken over a hot bed of white rice, with a side of Five Minute Sugar Snap Peas.
Recipe FAQ’s
Sichuan peppercorns provide the distinctive mouth-numbing heat characteristic of Kung Pao Chicken. While they are traditional and recommended, if unavailable, you can omit them or use other spices, keeping in mind that the unique flavor profile will be altered.
Velveting is a Chinese cooking technique that tenderizes meat. In this recipe, chicken pieces are marinated in a mixture of cornstarch, baking soda, and Chinese wine (or alternatives like sherry, rice wine, or vinegar). This marinade acts as a protective coating, sealing in moisture and preventing overcooking, resulting in tender and flavorful chicken.
The spiciness can be adjusted to your preference. The recipe suggests starting with a smaller amount of Sichuan peppercorns if you’re sensitive to heat and increasing as desired.
Kung Pao Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken:
- 28 ounces skinless chicken breast boneless, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon shaoxing wine or dry sherry
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch cornflour
Sauce:
- 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock or broth – water can be used
- 5 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar or substitute good-quality balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoon Chinese Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
- 2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch cornflour
Stir Fry:
- 4 tablespoons cooking oil divided
- 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic 4-6 cloves
- 1 tablespoon ginger
- 1/2 red bell pepper seeded and diced
- 1/2 green bell pepper seeded and diced
- 8-10 dried chilies cut into ½-inch pieces (adjust to taste)
- 1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns lightly toasted and ground
- 4 green onion scallion stems, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil optional
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients for the chicken in a shallow bowl; cover and marinate for 10 minutes (if time allows).
- Whisk sauce ingredients together until sugar dissolves; set aside.
- Heat a large skillet, pan or wok over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, allow to heat up, then add marinated chicken. Fry chicken for 3-4 minutes while occasionally stirring, until edges are browned. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Add remaining cooking oil into the same pan/wok. Stir in garlic, ginger, chili diced peppers (capsicums) and Sichuan peppercorns and stir fry for 1 minute.
- Give the prepared sauce a mix, then pour it into the pan and bring it to a boil while stirring.
- Once it begins to thicken slightly, add chicken back into the pan/wok and mix all of the ingredients through the sauce until the chicken is evenly coated and sauce has thickened, (about 2 minutes).
- Stir in green onions, peanuts and sesame oil. Toss well and continue to cook for a further 2 minutes to infuse all of the flavours together.
- Serve immediately with steamed/cooked rice or fried rice!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Great Recipe! This is a family favorite that we cook weekly. The substitutes for some of the less common ingredients are helpful as well (e.g. balsamic, sherry, etc). We also prefer cashews over the peanuts but either works well. We have cooked this recipe both with chicken and with organic grass-fed beef (top round steak) and the beef dish is even better IMO. If you opt for beef, cut thin slices roughly 1/8″ thick or less and use the same marinade as listed in this recipe but let it sit longer if you have the time (8 hours works well). One other suggestion I have if you feel adventurous is to add water chestnuts, baby corn, sliced celery and chopped mushrooms.
I made it yesterday. It was awesome. Next time I should reduce the sugar as it was little bit too sweet. It was flavorful and my 11 year old gave me AA+…My wife who usually hates my cooking, loved it…..But she didn’t say anything….:):)
Thanks again for Recipe
Hahaha! Well,I’m glad it turned out well for you.
You deserve your own tv show!! your recipes turn out better than most of the famous tv chefs. so glad i found your blog. now everyone’s been complimenting my cooking ? thanks a bunch!
Hi I’m having trouble Finding the Sichuan peppercorns.. any ideas for substitutes? Will the flavor be comprised if I omit it?
Erica, I used my mortar and pestle to coarse-crack 1 Tbsp. black peppercorns, then sprinkled in about 1/16-1/8 tsp. ground coriander seed (I found this solution on the Internet). It was an excellent substitution for Sichuan peppercorns–one I’d probably use again instead of getting the specialty ingredient.
Since I was 21 (27 years ago), I’ve been sampling Kung Pao Chicken in every Chinese restaurant I’ve been to, trying to find the best version. So I’ve probably had 40+ versions of Kung Pao. I’ve also never attempted to cook it myself until now. This recipe is better than anything I have had prior to this. Simply the best.
This recipe is AMAZING!! Very, very impressed with how this turned out. Better than most Chinese takeout. Marinating the chicken and adding the baking is a game changer! Thank you for this recipe!
I tried a few different Kung Pao recipes before this one with just so so results. Made this tonight and it was delicious! The flavors came out exactly like I had hoped and I doubt that I will ever order this dish out again. The directions were easy to follow and if you make sure that all your prep work is done before starting it is almost foolproof. Thank you.
I rarely take the time to review recipes, but this was wonderful! Better than take-out, this is good Chinese restaurant quality. Thank you!!
I made this for dinner after my spouse said it would never taste as good as a restaurant. You made two new converts! I love the spice and it was enough to give you a kick but not kill you. I also added fresh green beans, pea pods, and carrots for color and more veggieness. The sauce was a little sweet, so next time I might leave out the sugar. I paired it with a riced cauliflower/rice mix. Perfect!
The best Kung Pao recipe I have come across. Of course I take some liberties with ingredients here and there but the framework of the recipe is solid. I have this page bookmarked and I make this every week for my family with results that are consistently stellar. Thanks so much!