I frequently cook Chinese dishes at home and I've done a reasonably proficient job with such varied dishes as lazi ji (chili chicken), ganbian tudousi (deep fried spicy potatoes), pumpkins and beef, and shrimp dumplings. Two dishes that have eluded me, however, are gongbao jiding and Sichuan hot pot. Multiple efforts at each dish have failed to yield the desired results. So this evening I decided to make an effort at tackling the first.
Gongbao jiding may have a similar name as kungpao chicken in the west, but believe me, they are two completely different dishes. Kungpao chicken evokes chicken and green peppers washed out in soy sauce. Gongbao jiding, at any decent Chinese restaurant, suggests a succulent dish with a chicken and peanut core, sometimes outlined by vegetables (green pepper, cucumber or carrots), a spicy dish that has just a hint of sweetness.
Before I get into my methods, I should note one thing about my cooking style: I don't measure. Anything. And I also have a penchant for cooking with ingredients that I have on hand, rather than ones that would require walking outside at 8 pm to visit the grocery store. So proceed with caution.
Thinking about previous efforts, I decided that a crucial failure had been in the sauce (some might suggest failing to measure anything, but I don't think so).
Consulting many recipes on the Internet, I found that several advised adding either egg white or spicy bean sauce. I decided to add both. (Once, on a previous occasion, I had made the distastrous decision to toss an entire egg yolk into the mix- I did not repeat that mistake this time).
Here is a rough estimate of the ingredients I gathered together and the plot that unfolded:
Marinade
- water
- corn starch
- salt
- egg white
- light soy sauce
- cheap Chinese wine of unknown variety
- a dash of MSG (in place of chicken soup stock)
Sauce
- yuxiangrousi powder mix
- vinegar
- light soy sauce (I would have added some dark soy sauce if I had any)
- olive oil (in place of sesame oil)
- water
- corn starch
- Splenda (in place of sugar)
Spices
- ginger
- garlic
- dried red chilis
- peppercorns
- leek
Base ingredients
- chicken breast
- peanuts
- green bell pepper
- hot red pepper
- carrot
First, I left the chicken to marinade for about a half hour. Heating up the wok, I put in the cooking oil (I had wanted peanut oil but the store only had a mix), then the spices. Next came the carrots, then the peppers, then the chicken, and finally the peanuts. Last came the sauce. The whole endeavor took about two hours.
The result?
The dish tasted fairly good. However, it still tasted nothing like gongbao jiding. A much better description would have been lazi jiding with a lot of peanuts. The next time the weather is looking good and I attempt to face off against gongbao jiding, I'm going to make some adjustments. First off, the dish tasted a bit salty. Between the soy sauce and the powder mix, there was already enough salt going in the wok. so next time I don't think I'll bother to add any plain sauce.
The peanuts need to go in earlier. Next time, I'll throw them in before the chicken, letting the peanut flavor soak in a bit more and giving them time to fully roast. I would also like to replace the mixed oil and olive oil with peanut oil and sesame oil. I might consider holding the fire spices down a little and using less vinegar or better quality vinegar for the sauce (I didn't use a lot, but it was too much).
Finally, I think I should have waited until right before turning off the stove to add the sauce. I put it in last, but then gave it too long to cook down. A thicker sauce would have been nice to coat the rice.
Well, I'll conquer that mountain someday and figure out the key to this dish. In the meantime, I still have leftovers to work through- tomorrow's lunch.
If the recipe above doesn't suit your style, you may want to consult these other versions (by chefs with more systematic methods):
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