General Tso Chicken

This past week or so I have definitely been on a meat, sauce, and sticky rice as comfort food kick. So good, so easy, and so filling! So easy to stick in veggies of choice with dishes like these. The more veggies you stick in the more you can have. The more you can win at eating healthy really. Anytime I think about dishes like these I’m always reminded of what my uncle said to my one day as we considered having leftover Chinese food for breakfast one day. “Hey, 1.3 billion people can’t be wrong.” So true, so tasty. I have said “so” a lot in an intro for General Tso chicken haven’t I? This particular dish is a north American invention, it did not really come from china granted it claims its inspiration from there. Just like so many other dishes we tend to order. Did you know the typical serving from a restaurant tends to include 1,300 calories, 11 grams of saturated fat? Yeah. Let’s see if we can do better than that.

• 1 lb skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into chunks
• 5 tbl white wine
• 2 tbl cornstarch
• 1 tbl oyster sauce
• 2 tbl water
• 2 tbl soy sauce
• 1 tbl honey
• 1 tbl rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp virgin coconut oil
• 1 tbl grated fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 1 tsp sriracha sauce
• 2 stalks celery, chopped (or carrots, or broccoli, any of these or all are tasty additions)

1. Add 2 tbl of white wine and oyster sauce to 1 tbl cornstarch. Add chicken, toss to coat and set aside to marinate.
2. Combine the remaining white wine, water, soy sauce, honey, rice wine vinegar, sriracha sauce, and cornstarch in another bowl. Set aside.
3. Heat pan over medium high heat. Don’t be shy, the heat helps the chicken stay moist with a quick sear. When pan is heated add the coconut oil and swirl.
4. Add the chicken mixture to the pan. Stir-fry until browned and cooked through.
5. Add ginger, garlic, and shallots. Stir-fry until fragrant.
6. Add celery (or veggie mix of choice), stir fry until slightly tender but still crisp.
7. Stir in the sauce set aside earlier. Stir constantly until the sauce thickens.

Makes four servings. Each serving contains 158 calories, 3.1 grams fat, 10.4 grams carbs, .5 gram fibre, and 16.9 grams protein. Delicious over steamed rice. Yup, this is definitely a win for north american style chinese food. A guilty pleasure and comfort food without the sad weight in the next week.