Kung Po Chicken

This recipe is taken from the cookbook entitled "Wok" by Wendy Switser. I got this from Fully-Booked in Bonifacio High Street. I've tried a lot of recipes here last year and they came out great! So, for tonight, I'm having this for dinner. My roommate Azl has been asking for this for the longest time. So this is it!

Ingredients:

3 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into small chunks

2 tsp. grated root ginger or ginger puree

1 tbsp. light soy sauce

1 tsp. cornstarch

5 spring onions

100 g unsalted, unroasted peanuts

3 dried red chillies, deseeded and chopped

2 tbsp. groundnut oil

1/2 tsp. caster sugar

2 tsp. rice vinegar

1. Put the chicken in a bowl. Whisk together the ginger, soy sauce and cornstarch until smooth, pour over the chicken and stir until evenly coated. Set aside in the fridge to marinate for at least an hour.

2. Trim the spring onions. Remove the green tops from two of them and chop finely. Slice the rest of these two onions and the other onions into 2.5 cm lengths.

3. Heat the oil in a wok and stir-fry the peanuts over high heat for 1 minute or until golden. Drain the nuts from the wok with a slotted spoon and set aside.

4. Lower the heat to medium-high, add the chicken with its marinade and sliced spring onions and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add the nuts and chillies, sprinkle over the sugar and rice vinegar and toss together over the heat for 2 minutes.

5. Sprinkle over the chopped spring onion tops and serve at once with rice or egg noodles.

*Not that the dried chillies make this a pretty hot dish so reduce the quantity if you prefer or add 1 medium red chilli, deseeded and very finely chopped.

Cooking from Sichuan in western China is hotter and spicier than the sweet-sour stir-fries of Cantonese cuisine, and this combination of stir-fried chicken, chillies and peanuts is one of the region's most popular dishes.

By the way, I had to skin the chicken breasts and I just seasoned the chicken skin with salt and pepper and deep fry!  So good when dipped in vinegar with chillis and a perfect beer match!