Baked General Tso’s Chicken Recipe

A perfect night in for me is ordering some Chinese food, grabbing a bottle of wine, and watching a great movie (usually a chick-flick).  So last weekend, we ordered 50 Shades of Grey (the hubby was not impressed) and got a nice bottle of wine.  I decided I wanted to try this Low-fat General Tso’s recipe I had been eyeing on pinterest and was so impressed with how it came out. I was, however, missing Also, you absolutely have to try the Organic Jasmine rice from Trader Joe’s.  I decided taking on the chicken recipe was enough so I took a shortcut and got this rice and it is seriously the most delicious sticky white rice and is ready in 3 minutes.   The movie, on the other hand, was just okay.  In my opinion, the books are 100x times better.

Ingredients
2 -3 pounds boneless chicken thighs or breasts, cut in strips
1 egg + 2 tbsp water whisked together to make an egg wash
1 cup flour
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt
For the Sauce
1 cup sugar
¼ cup water
4 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp rice wine vinegar (white wine vinegar is fine in a pinch)
2 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil
2 tsp paprika
2 tbsp hot crushed chilli paste or sauce (use more or less to taste if you don’t like it very hot)
3 cloves minced garlic
3 tbsp freshly grated ginger
¼ cup water
2 tsp corn starch

Instructions
Combine the 1 cup flour, ½ tsp black pepper, ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, 3 tbsp ground ginger, 1 tsp salt.  Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper, then dip them in the egg wash to dredge them in the flour mixture.  Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and lightly drizzle or the tops with a little more olive oil.  Bake at 425 degrees F for about 20 minutes. Flip the pieces at half way through the cooking time.
To make the sauce, while the chicken is baking, prepare your sauce. Don’t walk away from this sauce; it gets very hot when making the caramel base and can burn easily so pay careful attention while cooking it.
In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ¼ cup water, toasted sesame seed oil, paprika, chilli paste or sauce, tsp salt, corn starch, cloves minced garlic and freshly grated ginger. Set this mixture aside.
In a medium saucepan or wok, boil together the 1 cup of sugar and ¼ cup of water.
Boil this over medium heat, watching constantly until the caramel starts to turn a light amber color and you can begin to smell the caramel. Do not stir. When it reaches this stage, give the other ingredients in the bowl a quick stir to make sure the corn starch is dissolved then add it all at once to the hot caramel. (Careful: This mixture is very hot and will release a lot of steam at this point!)  Be careful at this stage because this sauce can foam up considerably for a few seconds and it is very hot. Simmer for only few minutes and remove from the heat and allow to cool down slightly.  Toss the sauce with the cooked chicken pieces and serve over plain steamed rice or Chinese noodles.  Recipe from Rock Recipes.