General Tso Chicken {No Deep Frying}
Where are my Chinese takeout lovers? With a delicious twist, this recipe delivers crispy and juicy chicken without deep frying, bathed in a sweet, spicy, and satisfying sauce that will tantalize your taste buds. You won’t believe this General Tso chicken is made without eggs or soy.
Do you know why Chinese takeout is So Addicting?
Because it always has so many flavors, and it is crowd-pleasing, and convenient!
Among all the options, General Tso Chicken is one of my favorite dishes. I can’t get enough of the flavor and texture contract this dish creates. If you love lots of crispy chicken with flavor- you must try out this Sesame Chicken too, it is the perfect takeout alternative.
So I had to make my own with a little healthy twist! My homemade version is even more flavorful, easy to make, and without deep oil frying or heavy sugar and soy sauce.
I have a couple of tips for breading and frying chicken, making sticky sauce simple to execute for any home chef!
Ingredients For General Tso’s Chicken
Chicken: You can choose either chicken thighs or chicken breast. Chicken thighs are the more tender and soft choice. You might be worried that chicken breasts are easily overdone or become dried out during the cooking process. But in this recipe, by coating the chicken in starch, and pan fry in high heat, they will maintain their juiciness and tenderness in the middle.
Chinese Five Spice is one of my favorite spices in Asian cuisine. It typically contains Star anise, fennel, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, and sometimes includes Sichuan pepper and/or black pepper.
Tapioca Starch is used for breading the chicken. We are using a large amount here to create a layer of breading around the chicken, then pan frying to get that crispy golden brown outside.
Coconut Aminos is the main ingredients in the general tso’s sauce. It is sweet, savory and umami. It is an soy-free alternative to regular soy sauce. You can also use soy sauce in this recipe. Note that regular soy sauce is usually saltier than coconut aminos.
Vinegar creates a slight tangy contrast to the sweet and spicy in the sauce.
Sesame Oil deepens the flavor profile even more with its toasted notes.
Sugar is an important ingredient that makes up the sauce. My dad always tells me that sugar “brings out” the flavor. We don’t need a lot, but just a little goes a long way.
Minced Garlic, Chopped Green Onion, Ginger are the three musketeers in Chinese cooking. Always all the Chinese dishes I learned from my parents start with these 3 aromatic. They are sautted in hot oil until fragrant.
Whole Dried Chili Pepper adds another crucial layer to the flavor here. Don’t worry if you cannot handle the heat. As long as you don’t break the pepper and let out the seeds, it will not add much to the spicy level
Is Pan Frying going to Work the Same as Deep Frying?
Pan frying is actually better. Once we bread the chicken thoroughly with starch, pan frying them in hot oil can achieve a crispy exterier while keeping the inside juicy and moist.
Pan frying also does not require nearly as much oil as deep frying.
Moreover, if not exucuted properly, deep frying can result in very greasy chicken.
Make sure you have a good quality non-sticky pan. Once the chicken is breaded with starch, it can easily stick to a pan and when you turn them, the crispy layer could rip off all together. That would be a bummer, wouldn’t it?
How to Make General Tso’s Chicken
Marinate the Chicken:
Bread and Cook the Chicken:
A Few Final Notes That Will Set you up for Sucess
These tips will ensure you make the perfect General Tso’s Chicken.
Marinate the Chicken for at least 30 minutes to tenderize the meat and infuse the flavors. For best result, refrigerate it during the marinating process and do not cover it with plastic wrap or anything that complelety seals it. You can lighly cover it with a kitchen towel.
The chicken should absorb all the liquid after marinating. If there is anything left, disgard it. Any extra liquid could cause the arrowroot starch to clump up.
Coat the chicken thoroughly in arrowroot or corn starch. If there is not enough starch on any part of the chicken, you will still get delicious chicken but none of the crispy effect.
Use non-stick pan that distrubute heat evenly. Since we want to achieve that ultra crispy outside layer, we will pan fry the coated chicken on high heat. Moreover the starch will make the chicken stick to the pan more easily. But I have not had this issue using a good non-stick pan.
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Get the recipe:General Tso’s Chicken {No Deep Frying}
Ingredients
Chicken Marinade
- 1.5 lb chicken thighs , cubed
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos, *
- 1/4 -1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
- 2 tbsp Shaoxing Wine
- 1 tsp Chinese Five Spice
Chicken Coating
- 1 cup tapioca flour, **
Sauce
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 stalk green onion, chopped
- 1 inch fresh ginger, minced
- 5 Whole Dried Chili Pepper
- 1/4 cup coconut aminos, *
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp starch
Equipment
Instructions
Marinating Chicken
- In a medium to large bowl, add cubed chicken thighs.
- Add coconut aminos, shaoxing wine and Chinese Five Spice and salt to taste.
- Let it marinade in the refridgerator for at least 30 mintues.
Coat the chicken
- Add 1 cup of starch to a big ziplocbag. Then add the chicken in.
- Close the ziploc bag. Shake the chicken continuously to seperate them into individual pieces and to cover each piece in starch evenly.
Cook the Chicken
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together coconut aminos, vinegar, sugar, water and starch. Set aside.
- In a big non-stick pan, add 1/4 cup of cooking oil to have a thin to medium layer of oil. Heat the oil on medium to high heat for 30 – 45 seconds or until slightly shimemring.
- Add the flour coated chicken one to two pieces at a time. DO NOT dump the bag of chicken in the oil.
- Cook the chicken about 30 – 45 seconds or until golden brown then flip to the toher side.
- Transfer the cooked chicken to a paper towel lined plate. You may need to repeat these steps until all the chicken are cooked inside (165F internal temperature)
- Return to the same pan, heat 1 – 2 tbsp oil if there is not any left. Once the oil is shimmering, add in whole dried chili pepper. Gently stir until they are slightly black (this may take about 1 minute).
- Add in minced garlic, green onion, and ginger.
- Stir all the ingredients together for 30 – 45 seconds or until slightly brown.
- Stir the sauce before pouring in. Please pour the sauce in gently.
- Continue to stir as the sauce thickens. Then add in the cooked chicken.
- Combine until the chicken cubes are thoroughly coated with the sauce.
- Remove from the heat. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
The Nutrition Facts above are specific to the ingredients I chose to use for this recipe, which may vary.
