Kung Pao Chicken (2024)

Make restaurant-worthy Kung Pao chicken at home with this top-rated recipe.

What Is Kung Pao Chicken?

Kung Pao chicken (a.k.a. Gong Bao or Kung Po) is a stir-fried Chinese dish that consists of cubed chicken in a sweet, spicy, and savory sauce. It originated in southwestern China in the early 1800s.

What Is In Kung Pao Chicken?

This Kung Pao chicken recipe consists of cubed chicken breasts soaked in a marinade (made with cornstarch, water, white wine, soy sauce, and sesame oil) and tossed in a sweet-savory sauce (made with hot chili paste, brown sugar, white vinegar, water chestnuts, peanuts, onions, and garlic).

Tips:

· Use Shaoxing wine if you have it on hand.
· You can substitute cashews for peanuts and bamboo shoots for the water chestnuts.
· If you want, you can add cubed red and green bell peppers for color and flavor.

How to Make Kung Pao Chicken

You'll find the full, step-by-step recipe below — but here's a brief overview of what you can expect when you make this top-rated Kung Pao chicken:

1. Make the marinade, then marinate chicken in the fridge.
2. Make the chili paste-brown sugar sauce. Add the remaining ingredients and cook.
3. Cook the marinated chicken in a skillet until it's cooked through.
4. Add the chicken to the chili paste-brown sugar sauce.
5. Continue cooking until the sauce thickens.

What to Serve With Kung Pao Chicken

This Kung Pao chicken pairs perfectly with plain rice, but you can kick things up a notch with one of these top-rated Chinese-inspired side dishes:

· Egg Drop Soup
· Easy Fried Rice
· Chinese Broccoli

Allrecipes Community Tips and Recipes

"Easy to make and amazing flavors," according to one Allrecipes community member. "Preparation is everything as there is a lot of chopping. I added celery and a touch of ginger. Nice touch."

"I made this by adding red bell pepper and chopped onion (didn't have green onions) because that's what our favorite Chinese restaurant does," says Lucy. "I also had to substitute garlic chili sauce for the chili paste."

"I added broccoli, scallions, green pepper, and lightly salted dry roasted peanuts and it was amazing," raves Shirley R. Ritter.

Editorial contributions by Corey Williams

FAQs

Kung Pao Chicken? ›

Kung pao chicken is a popular Chinese restaurant dish of stir-fried chicken, peanuts and vegetables. It's traditionally made with specialty ingredients, like Sichuan peppercorns, Chinese black vinegar, Chinese rice wine, and whole dried red chilies.

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What's the difference between General Tso's and Kung Pao chicken? ›

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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What is Kung Pao chicken sauce made of? ›

This Kung Pao chicken recipe consists of cubed chicken breasts soaked in a marinade (made with cornstarch, water, white wine, soy sauce, and sesame oil) and tossed in a sweet-savory sauce (made with hot chili paste, brown sugar, white vinegar, water chestnuts, peanuts, onions, and garlic).

Why is Kung Pao chicken so good? ›

If you've never had kung pao chicken, the dish consists of juicy bites of chicken, crisp veggies, and crunchy, roasted peanuts — all deliciously coated by a sweet, tangy, and savory sauce. My mom taught me to use cashews instead of peanuts. The buttery texture of cashews goes so well with the rest of the dish!

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Does Kung Pao chicken taste like orange chicken? ›

Orange chicken is made with, well, oranges! A combination of orange juice and zest, to be exact. It's certainly stickier and sweeter than Kung Pao chicken! The meat in orange chicken usually has a crust.

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