Weeknight Kung Pao Chicken
Founder / Chef / Everyone’s Best Friend
Andy Hay
Welcome to my kitchen. I hope to inspire you to grow as a home cook!
This easy delicious weeknight kung pow chicken requires zero deep frying, is loaded with flavour, and is an amazing meal prep option. Perfect meal to make when you have a craving for take out, but hoping to keep things a little bit more nutritious. Make a large batch, keep it in the fridge and enjoy it throughout the week. Meal prepping have never been this delicious!
Tips for nailing this
- Make sure your pan is hot – This will ensure you get colour and flavour when adding your chicken. We want golden brown not pale and sad!
- Don’t over cook the veggies – We want to preserve some of the crisp texture of the onions and peppers. It give the dish a bit of freshness and bite.
- Buy Low-Sodium Soy sauce – The soy sauce is what give this dish its classic umami kick. With the low-sodium you get all the flavour, but in a slightly lighter style!
Use what you got!
This weeknight kung pow chicken recipe is perfect for getting ride or using up what you have on hand. The rich and glossy sauce pretty much goes with anything and everything. Have a half open bag of snow peas? Toss em’ in. Fresh corn you don’t know what to do with? Shave it off and add it to the pan. Making delicious isn’t always about following a recipe, take the ingredients you love and make it your own!
Interested in similar flavour?
If you liked the recipe for this kung pow chicken, make sure to look at some of our other recipes. All are equally as easy and simple to make, and equally as delicious. Here is a few of our favourite recipes from our blog. Make sure to give them a try and see what one you like best!
Ingredients:
For the chicken
- 2 large chicken breasts Sliced
- 2 tbsp rice flour AP flour will do!
- 1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
For the sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp hoisin
- 2 tsp sichuan pepper Black pepper will do!
- 1 tsp corn starch
For the veg
- 1 large red bell pepper sliced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tbsp freshly minced ginger
- 1 large white onion sliced
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 cup green onions sliced
- 1/2 cup peanuts
Instructions:
- Slice chicken breasts into long bite sized chunks
- In a large mixing bowl add chicken and combine with, rice flour, sesame oil and soy sauce. Wrap and set in the fridge.
- In a mixing bowl combine all Sauce ingredients. Stir together to fully incorporate. Set aside.
- With a sharp knife, thinly slice your onions and peppers. Mince your garlic and ginger. Set aside.
- Place a non stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add a small amount of canola oil. Once heated, gently add in your chicken and cook until golden brown.
- Add to the hot pan your sliced onions and minced ginger and garlic. Saute for 1 min.
- Add your thinly sliced peppers and toss. Next in goes chopped peanuts and sliced green onion.
- Once all your veg is in, stream in the prepared sauce and toss to fully coat. Turn heat down to medium and allow sauce to bubble away and thicken. 5 min.
- Once sauce is thick and glossy, remove from heat and serve over steamy jasmine rice.
Andy Hay
Andy is the founder of ECK, Chef, and let’s admit it… the reason you’re here. He taught himself to cook, and it all paid off when he secured his spot in the season 5 Finale of Master Chef Canada. Now, Andy uses his big energy to showcase recipes that actually make people want to cook. His brand was built on butter and East Coast charm, and Andy’s kept that same energy ever since. Off-camera, you’ll find him doing what started it all: cooking for his two daughters, wife and the people he loves.
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I follow you but I think this is the first recipe I’ve made. It’s SO good!
I don’t love chicken, but this is very tender and flavorful. And the sauce-great!
What do you think about shrimp instead of the chicken?
Shrimp would be great here, Dawn! Let us know how it goes!
Such a great recipe! While gathering ingredients, I came across a bottle of Kung Pao sauce – so glad I carried on without it! I used (blanched) broccoli for my veggie and was thankful there was plenty of sauce. The chicken was very tender – all in all, a wonderful meal.
Can I use a tsp of peanut butter in this recipe instead of the peanuts
The only thing is the use of Canola oil . I am off seed oils . Would olive oil work ? I assume it would since that and avocado oil are the two I use for cooking .
You can use olive or avocado oil, Christine!
Hi Andy –
I love kung pao chicken and your recipe looks both healthier and less time consuming than other recipes I’ve seen, so I look forward to giving it a try! One question – the directions include chopping ginger, but I don’t see ginger on the ingredient list. How much ginger should I use? Thanks for your help!
Robin
Great catch, Robin—thank you! We’ve updated the recipe to include 1 tablespoon of freshly minced ginger. Hope you enjoy it!
I don’t see the ginger and amount to use in the ingredients?
Hi Steve, you’ll want to use about 1 tablespoon of freshly minced ginger (added along with the garlic and onion). It’s in the recipe list for reference!