Kung Pao chicken with fried rice

Kung Poa, the chicken that sitcoms made famous. But this Kung Pao chicken with fried rice is the recipe from my dad's travels in Asia he wrote down in 1965. I suspect it's as good as the one at your favourite Chinese delivery outlet.

Chop-chop chicken

This really is an "under 30mins" dish, sauce and all. Okay, so, like maybe 40mins...

My dad used to cook this a lot when I was a little kid. But my mother was no huge fan of spicy food. The minute other nippers were about, she had her justification: they didn't like it. As it turns out, she was telling porkies. My little sister wasn't spice-averse at all. Nonetheless, she was also a bigger fan of my father's Cantonese fish dishes. So, on the whole, he tended to cook more Cantonese dishes. And this one became something he'd cook when it was only me and him eating together, which happened not infrequently.

The curious thing is that I had no idea it was Kung Pao chicken—my father Denton called it "Sichuan pepper chicken"—until I was a teenager. We never had Chinese take-out food at home. Why would you when someone at home was a wok demon? And, the Chinese restaurants we went to were places he'd tracked down for their authentic cooking that was nothing like the dishes in the usual Chinese joints serving up food geared towards Western palettes; usually feasts of sea urchins or crab or something.

It wasn't until a friend's mother ordered it as a "boys' treat" for a Friday night sleepover that I clocked it was the same dish. Well, almost: my dad's version used cashews rather than peanuts. I still have no idea whether that was my father's twist or whether it was closer to the original recipe he had learned in Asia, the one in his journal I now have. It would kinda make sense: peanuts are cheaper than cashews in many places. But, as I munched on this familiar dish with Wallace and Lawrence, I suddenly had a new word: Kung Pao!

Somehow, after that, it seemed everywhere. In sitcoms, rom-coms and non-coms, people couldn't seem to get enough of Kung Pao. It was the dish that could make every American girl who was torn between love and her career feel better according to the dialogue on multiple channels... I imagined offering a take-out carton to poor Cyndi Lauper as she achingly sang that she would catch me should I fall...time after time.

In the version I'm doing here, I'm using my father's original recipe recorded in his journal with one alternation: I add chopped baby sweetcorn for an extra bit of fibre. Also, it's entirely optional as to whether you have it with steamed or fried rice, though I'm doing it with the latter here.

And, as already mentioned elsewhere, if doing fried rice, always cook, drain, cool and store the rice in the fridge at least 24 hours before frying.

Similarly, while I'm making my own Kung Pao sauce here, there are some really good readymade versions from quality Chinese brands available in specialist Asian supermarkets in many places around the world. If pressed for time, you can use these and add a tspn of crushed Szechuan pepper while marinading. I don't want to say they're better than the recipe my dad passed on to me, but they won't disappoint.

3 top tips to get this recipe right:

• Don't marinade the chicken too long. Twenty mins is long enough, but no more than an hour or else it can make the chicken a little "stiff" in texture when wokked. No idea why.

• Not all dried chillies are the same, not even if from the same country of origin. I tend to use Indian dried chillies—because they're more readily available in the UK—and these are usually hotter than Chinese dried chillies. One reason is that they're more likely to be dried with the seeds in them. Some "posh" Chinese brands offer chillies that are de-seeded before drying. But there is no hard and fast rule. The quantity of chillies I'm using is based on pretty hot Indian dried chillies. You might want to add a couple more if using milder varieties. But the best thing is to test out how hot your chillies are before you decide. Go on, be brave!

• A lot of recipes call for using unsalted roasted peanuts. Sure, you can roast your own, but in a lot of places, roasted peanuts are usually salted. No problem: allow the salt in the peanuts to season the dish and don't add additional salt while cooking.

I'm using dark soy sauce in the fried rice. Many recipes for fried rice use light soy sauce. I think this is because it has both a lighter flavour and leaves the rice a lighter colour. However, I prefer to use dark soy. I find—especially if you have leftovers—fried rice with dark soy makes a great base for a rice salad the next day. It simply has more flavour, especially if, such as in this version, you're keeping additional ingredients minimal. And yes, with these quantities, you certainly should have some leftovers.

I understand why some people prefer this dish with steamed or boiled rice. But, I think the naturally salty—almost yeast-like—aspect of this fried rice with dark soy provides a brilliant balance of flavours for the meal.

As with many wok dishes, prep all your vegetable ingredients while the chicken is marinading, because the dish cooks very quickly and you will need to be ready to add them at the optimal time.

The recipe for the sauce calls for Chinese Shaoxing Rice Wine and Chinese black vinegar. If you can't find these easily where you live, the former is easily replaced with dry sherry, the latter with balsamico. Yes, I can vouch that both are seamless alternatives having cooked this dish in many places where that was necessary.

I suggest cooking the Kung Pao chicken first—because the sauce will keep it moist in the oven/warming drawer—before frying the rice. This isn't a "dirty wok" dish. So, before starting the rice, use the simple hack of pouring about a quarter of a cup of water into the wok. When it starts to boil, thoroughly swill around, then pour into the sink. Put the wok back onto the stove, allowing the high heat to dry off the moisture before adding the oil in which you'll fry the rice.

This recipe serves 2 diners. You can easily scale it up for larger groups.

Shopping list

for the Kung Pao chicken

• 2 skinless chicken breasts (or 3 deboned thighs)

• 1 red bell pepper, sliced vertically

• A small bunch of spring onions

• Approx. 80g baby sweetcorn, washed and cut into thick slices

• Approx. 80g roasted salted peanuts (or cashews)

• 1 tspn Szechuan peppers, roughly crushed

• 5 dried red chillies, cut into thick slices

• 2 tspns garlic & ginger paste (or minced equivalent)

• 1 tspn sesame oil

• 1 tbspn sunflower oil
  

for the Kung Pao sauce

• 1 tbspn light soy sauce

• 1½ tbspn dark soy sauce

• 1 tspn sesame paste (or tahini)

• 2 tbspn Chinese black vinegar (or balsamic vinegar)

• 1 tbspn Shaoxing rice wine (or dry sherry)

• 2 tspns rice vinegar

• 3 tbspn white sugar

• ½ tspn sesame oil

• 2 tspn cornflour

• 2 red dried chillies, very finely sliced

• 2 cloves of garlic, finely grated

• Approx. ½ cup water

for the fried rice

• 2 cups of white rice; boiled, drained, cooled and stored (see above)

• 1 cup peas; fresh or frozen

• 1 tspn sesame oil

• 1½ tbspn sunflower oil

• ½ tspn Chinese five spice

• 1½ tspsn dark soy sauce

• Salt and pepper to taste

Cooking Method

the Kung Pao sauce

1. Make the sauce first. You can do this days before and store in the fridge or freeze it

2. Add the oil to a small saucepan—ideally a proper small SAUCE pan—on a medium heat. Add the garlic and chopped dried chilli (with the seeds). As soon as the aromas are released—don't even wait for them to sizzle, add all of the other liquid ingredients; stirring

3. When you can see the liquid is hot enough to melt things, stir in the sesame paste. The trick from this point onwards it to keep the contents on the edge of boiling without ever reaching more than a gentle simmer. Keep stirring as the liquid reduces—approx. 7 or 8mins. When you notice there is some level of reduction, add the sugar and stir in. Once it's dissolved, add the cornflour. Within a minute of so, the sauce thicken

4. Keep stirring—probably for another 6 or 7mins— until it thickens and becomes a little like a thick syrup. Add the Szechuan pepper, stir in and remove fro the heat immediately

the Kung Pao chicken

1. Cut your chicken into bite-sized pieces and place in a dish suitable for the fridge. Sprinkle over the sliced dried chillies (and any seeds) and fold in. As soon as the sauce is cooled, pour three quarters of it over the chicken and gently fold in. Cover and marinade in the fridge for at least 20mins

2. While your chicken is marinading, do the vegetable prep. The most specific thing in this recipe is that you take your bunch of spring onions and cut them into two "halves" where the white part of the onions begin to become green. Slice the white "half" into fairly thing slices. And, cut the green "half" into larger pieces. Slice the bell pepper and the baby sweetcorn

3. Once your chicken has marinaded, pour both oils into the wok and heat on a high heat. While heating, throw in the sliced white part of the spring onions. As soon as they begin to sizzle, add the garlic & ginger paste and stir vigorously

4. Cook until the onions are still al dente, but show a slight colour change. NB: there might be quite a lot of spitting from the garlic & ginger paste on this high heat. Then add the red pepper and stir in—or flip if you're comfortable with that technique

5. Add the chicken and all of the marinade—including the sliced dried chillies—and stir in or flip occasionally. When the chicken is sealed and on its way to cooking, add the baby sweetcorn and a little of the excess Kung Pao sauce

6. When the sweetcorn has cooked for a couple of minutes, add the peanuts. Add the remainder of the Kung Pao sauce and stir in

7. Add the sliced green parts of the spring onion. You want to check that the peanuts have made that transition to no longer just being peanuts you'd encounter in a cocktail bar, but you also don't want to overcook them. Once the chicken is cooked, but still tender, remove from the heat and keep warm until the rice is cooked

the fried rice

1. Add the oils to the wok and heat on a high heat. When hot, add the rice and stir thoroughly and continue to stir as it fries

2. After you have been stir-frying the rice for about 4 to 5mins, add the soy sauce and Chinese five spice and stir in. Continue to stir as it cooks

3. When the caramelising effect of the soy kicks in—when it looks like it will be ready in 3 to 5mins—add the peas (depending on whether you're using frozen or fresh). Season with salt and pepper. When the peas and rice are cooked, transfer to a serving dish and take to table together with the Kung Pao chicken

Alternatives

Smoked tofu cubes—or simply tofu cubes—turns this into a great dish for vegans and vegetarians. Tofu of most kinds takes to marinades well. Yes, shitake mushrooms are also great, but do not marinade them. Simply add them—whole—to the wok at the same time as the sauce.

To date, my favourite pescatarian version has been with octopus. But apparently they have feelings. The other version I really love is with swordfish, which also marinades well relatively quickly. Of course, I've tried it with king prawns and langoustines, both of which work very well, but should be added after the peanuts because they cook so fast.

Pairings

I generally enjoy this dish with a cold beer. But tonight `I have been a very good boy and had it with black Chinese tea. Side bar: I don't find it works well with jasmine tea.

Most frequently, I have had this dish with beers of all kinds—I find it particularly good with Sol for some reason.

On the wine front, I've never really had the opportunity to explore. To date the best pairing was pretty bizarre, a franciacorta—unfortunately I can't remember which one. This is Karel's domain.