Kungpao Chicken Recipe By Chef Zakir (written on 12.5.

20)
Chicken boneless ½ kg
Salt to taste
black pepper powder (bpp) ¼ tsp
Egg 1
Corn flour few tbsps
Ginger julienne 1 tbsp
Garlic cloves 6-7 minced
Dry whole round red chilies 4 – 5
Carrot 1
Capsicum 1
Onion 1
Walnuts ¼ cup (I used salted peanuts, not walnuts)
Sugar 1 tsp
White pepper powder (wpp) ¼ tsp
Crushed red pepper or red chilli powder (rcp) 1-2 tbsp
Chicken stock cube 1
Soya sauce (SS) 2 – 3 tbsps
Worcestershire sauce (WS) 2 tbsp
Oyster sauce (OS) 2 tbsp
Oil for frying
Sesame seed oil 1 tsp

METHOD
Beat the egg very well. Cut ½ kg boneless chicken into bite size pieces, and marinate with 3 – 4 tbsp corn
flour, the 1 egg beaten very well, ¼ tsp bpp and a little salt. The marinade should not be thick. It should be
a thin coating. Marinate the chicken for 30 mins.  Then heat some oil; the oil should be enough for deep
frying and put in each piece, separately. Make sure that the chicken pieces don’t stick together in the oil.
Then deep fry for 3-4 minutes on one side, till golden brown and crisp. Then turn sides and fry. Don’t fry for
too long. Remove and keep aside. Put the hot oil away.

Cut about 1 tbsp of ginger in julienne form, and mince 6-7 cloves of garlic. Heat a little oil in another pan,
for sautéing the veggies. So first sauté both the ginger and garlic in oil. Make it fragrant. Then sauté in the
following order: 6-7 dry round red chillis; 1 chopped carrot; a few minutes later, 1 chopped capsicum; a
minute later, 1 chopped onion; then add ¼ cup of peanuts. All the veggies should have a nice gloss on them
and should be crunchy and firm. Keep all the items aside when sautéed.

Heat enough water for making gravy, in a separate pot and when it is boiling, add the 1 – 1 ½ tbsp
cornflour-water mixture. Make it thick. Then add the fried chicken and the following spices: the sautéed
ginger and garlic from before, 1 tsp sugar, ¼ tsp wpp, salt, 1 chicken stock cube, 2-3 tbsp SS, 2 tbsp WS, 2
tbsp OS and 2 tbsp rcp/crushed red chillis. Cook the gravy for 5-10 mins on high heat, so that the chicken is
cooked through. Check the taste. Add more cornflour and spices if needed. The gravy taste will become
diluted when the veggies are added; so make sure that the gravy spice level is a little extra. The Kung Pao
gravy should be on the dry side.

Just before serving and when the gravy is still hot, put in the veggies: sabut red chillis, peanuts, capsicum,
onions and carrots, so that they don’t become soft and remain crunchy. When the gravy taste is perfect,
add 1 tsp sesame seed oil last on top and mix. Dish it out and serve hot.
As seen on Dawn News Youtube posted on 5.10.17