Kung Pao Chicken

What is kung pao chicken?

Kung pao chicken is a classic Chinese stir fry dish with diced chicken, dried chilis, and peanuts. It comes from the land of fire-y spicy hot Chinese food, Sichuan. It’s also a really popular Americanized Chinese dish that is one of the most popular Chinese takeout dishes. Everyone loves kung pao chicken and it’s not hard to understand why, with its tender bits of chicken and complex sauce of salty, sweet, tangy, and spicy flavors.

This particular kung pao isn’t quite the way it’s made in Sichuan: instead of going the classic route dry-frying route with just a touch of sauce, it’s a saucy riff off of takeout style American Chinese kung pao, perfect for eating with rice.