Kung pao chicken exists both in the traditional Chinese repertoire and Americanized takeout menus alike. When we lived in Beijing, I was actually surprised to see how popular Kung Pao Chicken was among restaurant goers.
At certain restaurants that featured family-style cooking, I’d often see kung pao chicken on one out of every three tables. Chopsticks would work hard to grab at the small bite-sized pieces of chicken. And trust me, when the dish was “hot-off-the-wok” good, those chopsticks were moving faster.
Note: While this recipe was originally published in February 2015, we’ve re-tested it and updated it with new photos and clearer instructions. We’ve also included a recipe video! Happy to report the recipe itself is the same, and still as good as ever.
(Also, if you’d like to try a vegan version of kung pao, here are our recipes for kung pao tofu and kung pao mushrooms.)
What is Kung Pao Chicken?
Kung Pao Chicken is a dish featuring small pieces of diced chicken, peanuts, and chilies. While the dish originated in Sichuan province, its fame brought it to other provinces as well, each with their own regional variation.
The dish has also made its way out of China, and remains a common sight on Chinese takeout menus in countries around the world.
There are good reasons why everyone loves kung pao chicken. It’s got so many flavors going on: tangy, sweet, and salty with a hint of heat. The art is putting in the right amount of each ingredient to come up with that winning flavor combination.
It’s actually a relatively easy dish to make at home, and my goal was to make a restaurant-quality kung pao chicken recipe. Try it for yourself to see if I’ve succeeded!
Kung Pao Chicken Recipe: Instructions
1. Start by roasting the peanuts:
Heat a teaspoon of oil in a wok over medium heat and add a cup of raw shelled peanuts. Stir constantly (or they’ll burn) for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir for another minute using the residual heat in the wok.
Set aside to cool. They will turn crunchy once they’re cooled completely.
Alternatively, you could skip this step and simply use shelled roasted peanuts!
2. Marinate the chicken:
Combine the chicken with 1 teaspoon each of oil, cornstarch, and Shaoxing wine, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of white pepper. Set aside to marinate for 20 minutes. For more information and preparing chicken for stir fries, see Bill’s post on Chicken velveting 101.
3. Prepare the sauce:
Mix together light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sugar, water, and cornstarch, and set aside.
4. Grab the rest of your ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed and sliced
- 2 thin slices ginger, minced
- 2 dried red chilies, deseeded and chopped (these can be quite spicy, so adjust according to your own tastes)
- 1/2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorn powder
- 6 scallions, white portions only, cut into 3/4” pieces
5. And you’re ready to cook kung pao chicken:
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wok over high heat. Sear the chicken, remove from the wok to a bowl, and set aside.
Turn the heat to low and add another tablespoon oil. Add the garlic, ginger, chilies, Sichuan peppercorn powder, and scallions. Cook for a minute or two until fragrant.
Add the chicken back to the wok. Turn up the heat to high and stir-fry for a minute.
Then stir up your prepared sauce (the cornstarch will have settled to the bottom, so make sure it’s well incorporated).
Add the sauce to the wok and stir-fry for another minute. The sauce should thicken very quickly.
Finally, add the peanuts.
Give everything a final stir and serve.
For a twist on this Kung Pao Chicken recipe, try our oven fried Kung Pao wings, or vegan/vegetarian versions: kung pao tofu and kung pao mushrooms.
Kung Pao Chicken Recipe - Chinese Restaurant Quality
Ingredients
To roast the peanuts:
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 1 cup raw peanuts (shelled, with or without the skin)
- Can also substitute roasted shelled peanuts and skip this step!
To marinate the chicken:
- 12 oz. 340g chicken breast, cut into 3/4” cubes
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon shaoxing wine
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- a pinch of ground white pepper
To prepare the sauce:
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
The rest of your ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 3 cloves garlic , smashed and sliced
- 2 thin slices ginger , minced
- 2 dried red chilies , deseeded and chopped (these can be quite spicy, so adjust according to your own tastes)
- 1/2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorn powder
- 6 scallions , white portions only, cut into 3/4” pieces
Instructions
- Heat a teaspoon of oil in a wok over medium heat and add a cup of raw shelled peanuts. Stir constantly (or they’ll burn) for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir for another minute using the residual heat in the wok. Set aside to cool. They will turn crunchy once they’re cooled completely. You can also skip this step and use already roasted shelled peanuts.
- Marinate the chicken. Mix together the chicken with all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and set aside for 20 minutes.
- Prepare the sauce. Mix together all the sauce ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wok over high heat. Sear the chicken, remove from the wok to a bowl, and set aside.
- Turn the heat to low and add another tablespoon oil. Add the garlic, ginger, chilies, Sichuan peppercorn powder, and scallions. Cook for a minute or two until fragrant.
- Add the chicken back to the pan and turn up the heat to high. Stir-fry for a minute and then use your finger to stir up your prepared sauce (the cornstarch will have settled to the bottom, so make sure it’s well incorporated). Add the sauce to the wok and stir-fry for another minute. The sauce should thicken very quickly.
- Finally, add the peanuts. Give everything a final stir and serve.
nutrition facts
Hi! The result looks incredible! Tho I was wondering if you left out malah? A few places I went to used malah ok this dish. :)
Hi Toy, this dish does call for a little bit of Sichuan peppercorn. You can adjust to your preference. :-)
Made this with cashews as that was all I had on hand. Delicious
Love this dish too, so tasty :-)
Is there a reason you’re not specifying black rice vinegar for the sauce? Seems common for other authentic King Pao recopies.
Hi James, black rice vinegar can be overpowering.
This was fantastic! It was my first attempt at Kung Pao Chicken, and I’m very happy with the results. The only thing I felt it was missing was the deeper red color of yours. From the video, your sauce looks a bit darker. I didn’t have Lee Kum Kee soy sauces on hand, so I substituted Kikoman (regular strength) for the light soy sauce, and Kwong Hung Seng black soy sauce (a product of Thailand). Perhaps that combination just didn’t do it. Nevertheless, the flavor of the dish was exactly what I hoped for. I’ll certainly be making this one again.
Hi Mark, try to get Pearl River Bridge light and dark soy sauce, then try this recipe again :-)
Thanks, Judy! I live in Southern California, and we have some excellent markets for these kinds of ingredients, so I have no doubt that I’ll be able to get the Pearl River Bridge products. Thanks for the recommendations.
Hi Mark, we have included them in this post, so you can see what they look like: 10 essential ingredients .
This was really good. There are so many slight variations of this dish served in restaurants here in Shanghai; both my wife and I agree that this was the real deal. Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you for your affirmation, David :-)
Thanks to all of you at TWOL. This recipe for KPC looks so easy. We’ve tried others on the web that are so complicated, but this one (especially the video on Youtube) shows how easy it is to make this recipe. I’ve loved Kung Pao Chicken and Shrimp. But so many people don’t know what goes into it. This recipe (especially YT video) shows exactly what I like in my KPC, which I’ve eaten at Chinese Places my entire life. Also, this time — when my wife (Cathy) makes it, I won’t have to worry if it is TOO SPICY, because she can control the chilis and level of spice that goes into it. Often, at C-Rests, I would always have to tell them to make it semi-spicy, because sometimes, when I would tell them that I like the flavor and some spice, it’d come out like tasting like Lava from an exploding Volcano. So, be nice to (for once) be able to adjust the spice and learn exactly how much of each ingredient to put into it.
It’s a great feeling to be able to cook your favorite dish, and the way you like it :-)
I made this and It came out Delicious! Thank you very much for sharing this! I was out of soy sauce. But after adding a bit of Teriyaki sauce. I did find 4 soy sauce packs. After searching. I also made my own mix of rice wine substitutes to the sauce. It came out really Good though!
So glad you liked it, Reb. It will be even better if you try it with the right sauces next time :-)
Forgot the rating – definitely a 5!
Thanks :-)
I love this dish! For more heat, I add fresh sliced peppers and 1 tsp homemade chili oil I also add Shaoxing wine to the sauce. Spicy and so flavorful!!! Thank you for your wonderful site.
You are so welcome, Sheri, glad to see that you are adjusting the recipe to suit your tastebuds.