P.F. Chang's General Tso Chicken Recipe (2024)

P.F. Chang's General Tso Chicken Recipe

If P.F. Chang's's General Tso Chicken is one of Your Favorite Dishes, You will LOVE making it at Home with our Easy Recipe.

P.F. Chang's General Tso Chicken Recipe (1)


Photo by jensteele

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General Tso Chicken – Everyone’s Favorite “American” Chinese Dish

If you ask for General Tso Chicken outside the major cities in China (where the influx of American tourists have made it necessary to include on most menues) the waiter will probably look at you like you are crazy.

Why? Because General Tso Chicken is not a traditional Chinese dish. It was invented in American Chinese restaurants for Americans. And not only is the dish almost completely unknown in China, but the General that the dish may or may not be named after is such a minor character in Chinese history that most Chinese have never heard of him.

Imagine if one of your guests, out of the blue, were to asked you to make some Hagood Chicken for them and you get some idea of the confusion your waiter is feeling. (Johnson Hagood was a Brigadier General in the South Carolina State Militia during the American Civil War – and as far as I know there is no chicken dish named after him. Yet.)

If P.F. Chang's's General Tso Chicken is one of Your Favorite Dishes, You will LOVE making it at Home with our Easy Recipe.

Ingredients

Sauce

  • 1/2 cup Cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup Water
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh Garlic
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh Ginger
  • 3/4 cup Sugar
  • 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
  • 1/4 cup White Vinegar
  • 1/4 cup dry Sherry or White Wine
  • 1 can condensed Chicken Broth

Meat

  1. 3 pounds boneless, skinless Chicken, cut into chunks
  2. 1/4 cup Soy Sauce
  3. 8 small dried Red Chiles, stems and seeds removed
  4. 1 Egg, beaten
  5. 1 cup Cornstarch
  6. 2 quarts Vegetable Oil for deep-frying, plus 1 tablespoon for stir-frying
  7. 2 cups sliced Scallions (green onions)
  8. Fried Rice or Steamed Rice, for serving

Instructions

Sauce

  • Put everything in a quart jar with a lid and shake it up, then put in the fridge. Just shake it up again when you are ready to use it.

Meat

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the chicken, soy sauce, and hot peppers. Stir in the egg. Add the cornstarch and mix until all the chicken pieces are well coated. (It will look awful at this point.)
  2. Heat the deep-frying oil to 350°F in a large pot. Cover a large platter with a few layers of paper towels.
  3. Set aside the chiles. Deep-fry 7 or 8 chicken pieces at a time until crispy. Drain on paper towels. Repeat until all the chicken chunks are fried.
  4. Place 1 tablespoon oil in a wok and heat until very hot. Add the scallions and chiles and stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Shake the sauce to recombine, then pour it into the wok. Cook until thick. If it gets too thick, add water until it’s the right consistency. Add the chicken to the sauce and cook until everything is hot and bubbly. Serve with fried or steamed rice.

P.F. Chang's General Tso Chicken Recipe (2)

America’s love affair with Chinese food dates back more than a century. Today, such dishes as General Tso’s Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork, and Egg Rolls are as common as hamburgers and spaghetti. Probably at this moment, a drawer in your kitchen is stuffed with Chinese takeout menus, soy sauce packets and wooden chopsticks, right?

But what if you didn’t have to eat your favorites out of a container?

In The Chinese Takeout Cookbook, Chinese food blogger and cooking instructor Diana Kuan brings Chinatown to your home with this amazing collection of more than eighty popular Chinese takeout recipes—appetizers, main courses, noodle and rice dishes, and desserts—all easy-to-prepare and MSG-free.

Photo of P.F. Chang's General Tso Chicken Home Recipe is by jensteele and is used by permission under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) License. Photos may be "representative" of the recipe and not the actual finished dish. All photo licenses listed were correct at the time of the posting of the page. Recipe is our adaption of several recipes previously found frequently on the web - researched with help from the Wayback Machine. Additional Information Courtesy of Wikipedia and is used by permission.

P.F. Chang's General Tso Chicken Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is PF Chang's version of General Tso's chicken? ›

Have you ever eaten at P.F. Chang's? They have “Chang's Spicy Chicken” on the menu, which is basically their version of general tso's. It has the perfect balance of sweet and spicy, and the sauce is light in color, which indicates it's not overloaded with soy sauce.

Is General Chang the same as General Tso? ›

Some experts think the dish has roots in ancient China; others think it has roots in 1970's New York. General Chang's Chicken is essentially the same dish with a less popular name. I've read that Tso and Chang were ancient rivals.

What is General Tso sauce made of? ›

How to Make General Tso's Sauce: The sauce for General Tso's chicken is so simple to make with pantry staple ingredients: rice vinegar, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, water, sugar, and some corn starch to thicken the sauce. Simply add the ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine.

What is General Tso batter made of? ›

This General Tso's chicken uses cornstarch batter for a crisp, golden brown coating. Frying the chicken twice makes it extra crispy. A spicy, sweet soy sauce mixture with ginger and garlic adds incredible flavor.

Why does General Tso Chicken taste different? ›

General tso's chicken: Spices play a key part in the flavor profile of general tso's chicken. Hot chili pepper flakes or powder, or even fresh chilies, are a key ingredient, as is ginger and garlic.

What is the difference between General Tso and Szechuan chicken? ›

Although the sauces are similar, General Tso's does not call for Szechuan peppercorns either though I see no reason why you couldn't add them anyway. Another difference is that General Tso's chicken is marinated in a light batter and deep fried. Szechuan chicken is only dusted with flour and shallow fried.

What Chinese dish is similar to General Tso Chicken? ›

Similarities in Sesame Chicken, Orange Chicken and General Tso. Sesame Chicken, General Tso, and Orange Chicken look quite similar and share some common ingredients, which can make it difficult for some to choose between them. Chicken: Each dish uses chunks of boneless chicken meat (usually thigh).

Do they eat General Tso's chicken in China? ›

You might be surprised to learn that General Tso's chicken, a staple on Chinese-American menus, is almost entirely foreign to people who live in the country from which it supposedly originated. While the dish isn't exactly authentic Chinese food, its namesake was a very real (and very powerful) general.

What does TSO mean in General Tso Chicken? ›

Peng named the chicken after the Hunanese Qing Dynasty General Tso Tsung-t'ang (now transliterated as Zuo Zongtang). The future general began his military career fighting for the Qing in the Taiping Rebellion, a 14-year civil war waged by the Han Chinese against the Qing emperor.

Is General Tso just sweet and sour? ›

Sweet and sour chicken: The two are super similar. The main difference is that General Tso sauce has more ginger flavor, as well as a little more heat from the hot sauce or chili flakes.

Is General Tso chicken just orange chicken? ›

Key Differences

General Tso chicken has a more complex and slightly spicy flavor profile, while orange chicken has a bright and citrusy flavor. Additionally, General Tso chicken has its roots in Chinese cuisine, while orange chicken was created in the United States.

What ethnicity is General Tso chicken? ›

The dish's origins go back to Chinese culinary practices, along with their many regional influences, but its popularity certainly stems in part from the adaptation for North American palates created in New York in the 1970s from the original recipe of the late chef Peng Chang-kuei.

Should I coat my chicken in cornstarch before frying? ›

The Secret to Extra Crispy Fried Chicken

That's right! I use a 50/50 mix of Argo® Corn Starch and flour along with a package of dried ranch dip mix to coat the chicken legs, and they come out so crispy.

What is the original General Tso Chicken? ›

"The original General Tso's chicken was Hunanese in taste and made without sugar," he says, "but when I began cooking for non-Hunanese people in the United States, I altered the recipe." In the late 1980s, having made his fortune, he sold up and returned to Taipei.

What's similar to hoisin sauce? ›

Ready-made hoisin sauce alternatives
  • soy sauce.
  • tamari, which is suitable for gluten-free diets.
  • oyster sauce.
  • chili sauce.
  • barbecue sauce.
  • sweet and sour sauce.
  • teriyaki sauce.
Feb 2, 2022

What is most similar to General Tso Chicken? ›

Sweet and sour chicken: The two are super similar. The main difference is that General Tso sauce has more ginger flavor, as well as a little more heat from the hot sauce or chili flakes. Kung pao chicken: The main difference between the two is how the meat is cooked.

What can I order instead of General Tso Chicken? ›

Sesame chicken if you like the nutty notes of sesame oil and seeds. General Tso if you like a bit of spice. Orange chicken if you want something a bit sweeter.

What is in PF Chang's kung pao chicken? ›

What ingredients are in P.F. Chang's Kung Pao Chicken/Kung Pao Shrimp? Your choice of sliced chicken or whole shrimp, potato starch, chili pepper pods, garlic, chili paste, scallion, spicy Kung Pao sauce, peanuts, celery, and sesame oil.

Is Kung Pao Chicken the same as General Tso? ›

Kung pao chicken and General Tso's chicken are similar in that they are both chicken-based dishes with a hint of chili, but the primary difference is that latter is deep-fried and coated with a syrupy sweet and sour sauce, and the former is coated with a gentle, more balanced sauce.

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