Kung Pao Chicken

This one of famous dishes in Chinese restaurants like PF-Chang and Panda express. This dish has equal amounts of chicken,peanuts and vegetables but the only disadvantage is it is deep fried. My recipe is low fat version which is pan fried and loaded with vegetables. This dish goes well with fried rice, noodles or just as an appetizer/snack.

Ingredients

• 1 lb chicken breast -cubed
• ½ egg beaten
• 1 tsp- soyasauce
• 2 -3 tsp – cornflour/all purpose
• 3-4 red chillies -whole
• 1 zucchini- cubed
• 1 bell pepper- cubed
• ½ onion- cubed
• 4-5 stems green onion- chopped
• 2 tsp ginger- finely chopped
• 2 tsp garlic- finely chopped
• ¼ cup- dry roasted peanuts- roughly chopped
• salt to taste
• 3-4 tsp- sesame /olive oil

Sauce

• 1-2 tsp- chili garlic sauce( acc to spice level)
  
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tsp- rice vinegar
• 1 tsp- hoisin sauce( optional)
• 1 tsp- honey
• 1/4 cup- water/chicken broth
• 1 tsp- cornstarch

Directions

1. In a bowl combine chicken, salt, egg ,soyasauce and cornstarch and mix well and allow it to sit for alteast 15 -30 mins.
2. Meanwhile mix all the sauce ingredients except the cornstarch and water.
3. Heat the pan with little oil stir fry chicken. Cook the chicken until it’s light to golden brown on each side( 5 mins max) and transfer to a bowl.( dont overcook the chicken,else it will lose its moisture and become hard).
4. Add 2 more tablespoons oil to same pan and add ginger, garlic and red chillis and toss for a minute.
5. Add the onions, white part of green onions, zucchini and bell pepper and stir fry for another 3-4 minutes.
6. Add the chicken back to pan and add the mixed sauce.
7. Finally add the cornstarch mixture dissolved in chicken broth/water .
8. Keep stirring till it all comes together.
9. Add the chopped peanuts.
10. Transfer to a serving plate and garnish with julienne green onions.

Benefits of Peanuts:

• Peanuts are high in fat. But like avocados, they are high in the “good” kind -monounsaturated fat , which are known to lower risk of cardiovascular disease and lowers the LDL (bad cholesterol) responsible for transporting cholesterol to the arteries.
• Whole peanuts contains high amount of protein, which makes it a preferred diet of those people engaged in body-building and those people who are weak and underweight.
• Recent research shows that peanuts contain high concentrations of a compound and that roasting can increase peanuts’ p-coumaric acid levels, boosting their overall antioxidant content by as much as 22%.
• Peanut is rich in calcium which helps promotes healthy bones
• Peanut contain vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant that is shown to significantly reduce the risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Related Posts :

Pumpkin Waffle...

Y should we Exercise?...

Simple Bread Pizza...

Brown rice Dosa...