Kong (Gong) Bao Chicken

Kong (Gong) Bao Chicken is one of my favorite dishes. It combines spicy, sweet and sour taste.

One important ingredient is raw peanut with its red skin. Peanut is fried and then mixed with other ingredients, which provides beautiful color and nutty aroma. Baked peanut or cashew is often chosen as substitute, however, neither of them can really give that fantastic result.

My recipe:

(1) Cut 1 lb chicken breast into 2-cm cubes, dice one green pepper, finely chop green onion and grab some dried red pepper;

(2) Marinate breast cubes with 2 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp salt and 1tsp corn starch or tapioca flour;

(3) Prepare sauce: 3 tbsp dark soy sauce, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp corn starch or tapioca flour and 6 tbsp water, mix them well;

(4) Heat skillet under medium power and add some oil, fry peanut until it develops aroma;

(5) Remove peanut from oil, drain and set aside;

(6) Heat skillet under high power, add some oil, stir-fry green pepper dices until they are cooked through, season dices with some salt and transfer them to a plate, set aside;

(7) Heat skillet under medium-high power, add oil and dry red pepper, stir until pepper changes to brown in color;

(8) Add chicken cubes, stir until cubes fully separated (raw meat tends to stick to each other);

(9) Add chopped green onion, stir until aroma develops;

(10) Pour sauce over, stir until thickened;

(11) Add fried peanut and then green pepper, mix well;

(12) Transfer to serving plate and serve with warm white rice.