101Kidz : Grown Ups : Recipes : Chinese
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Kung Pao Chicken

1+ lb. chicken breasts.
Add 1+ Tbl corn starch and an egg white, mix it up & set aside.

A bunch (or more) green onions. Just pull off the dry or mushy parts
and rinse, but you can use pretty much the whole things. Cut them in 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Add 1 or 2 crushed garlic cloves.

3/4 c. peanuts (or more, or less).
Sauce: 1+ tsp. chili paste w/ garlic
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. red wine vinegar or rice vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
1+ tsp. corn starch
1/4 c. chicken stock
1++ Tbl cooking sherry or white wine
~1 oz. soy sauce
5-10 dried red peppers (the ~1-2" long ones)

Get 1+ cup of oil REALLY hot in a wok. Within reason, the hotter the oil, the more quickly the chicken will cook and the less grease it will soak up. Cook the chicken until it's almost done, and the pieces have stopped sticking to each other. Remove.

In the same oil, cook the peanuts. If you overcook them, they're pretty
bad. You'll find that you'll get a strong peanut odor in the kitchen when they're ready to come out. Remove.

Dump all but ~2 Tbl oil somewhere, and heat it to smoking. Add the peppers, and cook until black (not very long!). Add the green onions and cook (stir fry) ~30 seconds. Add the chicken and stir fry ~60 seconds. Add the sauce, and when the sauce begins to thicken, you can turn off the stove. Stir in the peanuts.

After you've made this a couple times, and all the ingredients have found their way into the same cabinet, you'll find that you can prepare this using very few utensils and fairly quickly.

Note: if you want to double the recipe, cook the meat in batches. If you try to cook more than ~1-1/3 lbs. of meat at one time, it'll just sit in the wok and soak up grease.

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