Kong Pau Chicken

This recipe is from a chinese cookbook I purchased in desperation  the week after I married David.  We were in Taiwan. I wanted to go back to cooking school there, David said, "no need, you can just start cooking for the family. I'll tell my mom. You can start next week" I bought 3 cookbooks. David's mom would set out ingredients every morning and I would try to figure out what to do with them.  I have listed the cookbook ingredients and amounts, but the truth is I never measure and I've never seen a Chinese cook measure.  The ingredient amounts just give you an approximate idea. 

Marinate 2/3 lb. diced raw chicken in:

1 T. soy sauce

1 T. rice wine (optional and not at all necessary)

2 T. cornstarch 

for at least 20 min.

Heat a little oil in the bottom of a wok over high heat. Add chicken and dried red peppers to sear and stir-fry til cooked through. Add approx 2 T. soy sauce, 1 T. sugar, 1 tsp. black vinegar (basically the same as worcestershire sauce) and 1/2 tsp. sesame oil along with a few roasted peanuts and 1 T. of chopped green onion. 

I generally never measure, just throw ingredients in while stir-frying. If you feel very uncomfortable with this, measure everything into a small bowl (mise en place) so you can add all at once.

The hotness of the dish will be determined not just by the amount of dried pepper, but by the type of pepper (look in the Mexican section for chile japones. Chile arbol looks the same but the heat level is shockingly higher than the chile japones) Also, traditionally the chiles are added to the wok first so they flavor the dish more intensely, but be careful, in an enclosed kitchen the cooking peppers in a hot wok can quickly fill the air and make you choke.  If you add the chiles later, they will not flavor the dish as much, so if you prefer milder flavor, add them later.

technique:

One key to Chinese cooking is searing over high heat. You must have everything in place ready to add immediately as you are constantly stirring over very high heat. High heat will sear the meat and seal juices inside. If the heat is not high enough, water and juice will seep out of the meat and/or vegetables, making a liquid that can make meat soggy and suck the color and life out of the vegetable. Many home kitchens do not have high enough heat. To make it as hot as possible, always heat oil before adding meat and do not double recipes, you will not get the same results.