Cooking Chinese food at home doesn’t even compare to takeout! It feels so much lighter and it’s a pretty simple process. The beauty of cooking at home is that you can control every factor of a recipe. When it comes to frying, you can put the chicken in a batter for a breaded result, toss it in cornstarch for a crispy, but lighter outcome or you can even sauté it!
Ingredients
-
For the chicken
-
2-2.5 lbs chicken thighs, large cubes
-
1/2 cup corn starch
-
1/2 cup peanut oil, or any neutral oil
-
Thinly sliced ginger ~10 slices, skin removed (optional)
-
2 green onion stalks, sliced
-
Sesame seeds to garnish
-
1 tbsp avocado or sesame oil
-
2-5 dried arbol red chilles
-
1/2 cup hoison sauce
-
1/4 cup soy sauce
-
1/4 cup brown sugar
-
4 tsps sesame oil (I used avocado oil)
-
5 cloves garlic, grated or minced
-
2 tbsps rice vinegar
-
1 tsp red pepper flakes
-
2 tbsps corn starch
-
1 cup cold water
Instructions
- Mix together sauce ingredients in a bowl, set aside.
- In a separate bowl, toss chicken thighs in corn starch. Preheat oil over medium heat in a medium frying pan (the oil will not be tall enough to submerge the chicken). Test oil by dropping a small pinch of corn starch in to oil, if it bubbles it is hot enough.
- Carefully add batch of chicken to oil, separate the pieces. Fry for 6 minutes, flip to fry additional 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel. Once all chicken is fried, discard oil.
- Over medium heat, add 1 tbsp oil to pan along with chiles and ginger. Sauté for 1-2 minutes then mix in sauce. Stir and allow to thicken. Once thick, mix in 1/2 green onions and toss in chicken. Remove from heat. Plate (I got Chinese takeout boxes on Amazon!) garnish with sesame seeds and green onion. Enjoy!
