HOW TO KUNG PAO Chicken, Shrimp, or Tofu

hey what's up kung pao chicken is easily in my top three favorite takeout chinese food dishes of all time and i finally figured out how to make a delicious version of it at home it only takes about 20 minutes and no you definitely don't need a giant seasoned walk to make it happen to get started i'm going to need some chicken this is one pound or a rough half kilo of boneless skinless chicken thighs i'm using thighs here because they require almost no prep they taste very good and they're nearly impossible to overcook to get these ready for the pan we're going to cut them crosswise three times and then come back and dice that into roughly one inch size pieces no need for perfection here either in most chinese restaurants they're just cleavering their way through probably like a hundred pounds of chicken meat per day and the size usually ends up being pretty random that looks good now i'm gonna move these over to a little baby sheet tray set them off to the side and now i'm gonna get the rice rolling for this dish for that i'm gonna grab my beloved 20 rice cooker and the rice i'm using today is a standard long grain rice and i'm pouring about 300 grams of that into a strainer so that i can rinse off the excessive starch for most imported long grain rices like basmati or jasmine rice where the integrity of the individual grain is really highly valued rinsing helps prevent that rice from becoming a gluey sticky mess but for most asian rice or most domestic rice made here in the united states rinsing is probably not necessary for example i eat a lot of this medium grain cow rose rice because it's pleasantly starchy and i prefer to eat it unrinsed alright 300 grams of rinsed long grain rice goes into my rice cooker followed by 420 grams of water eight grams of salt and i usually throw in a squeeze or two of neutral oil in there to keep the grains all lubed up this is white rice so i'll hit the button on my cooker and while that cooks we will make kung pao the cooking vessel that we're going to be using is my largest non-stick pan it's 14 inches and probably my favorite piece of cookware aside from the aforementioned budget rice cooker 12 inch nonstick or a seasoned wok would also work here well and i'm preheating this pan over high heat once this pan is fully heated we're gonna squeeze in a bunch of high smoke point cooking oil let's say 40 grams or two tablespoons worth then in goes 60 grams of roasted but unsalted peanuts i'm gonna fry these up for about 60 seconds or so or until they're nice and golden brown and starting to smell all delicious once these are all fried up and taking on some nice golden brown color like this we're going to take them off the heat and land them on a paper towel to drain off some of that oil we're going to get back to these in a second the non-stick goes back over high heat and this time around i'm going to add in a bit more oil than before this time 60 grams or three tablespoons worth because stir frying actually needs a really good amount of oil to fully transfer the heat from the pan to the meat once the oil is just starting to smoke up i'm gonna add in my chicken again that's one pound or a rough half kilo of diced chicken thighs and once they're all in i'm gonna use a spatula to spread that out into an even layer and get as much chicken contact with the pan as possible next i hit this chicken with a strong pinch of salt and then two to three really large pinches of black pepper i want a ton of that black pepper heat in the background of this dish and then i'm gonna hit it with a generous pinch of red chili flakes now i'm gonna add a little bit more oil to this pan to make sure these thighs are sizzling up correctly then i'm not gonna do anything for like a whole minute i want a really hard sear on these thighs that's almost like a crust and for that we need to just let them sit there for a little while i'm going to check in after about a minute or so to see if they're getting that crispy exterior that we're looking for and that looks great so now we're going to give the pan a little toss toss to get some new areas of chicken in contact with the pan and then we're gonna continue to saute this chicken for another whole minute without touching it two minutes into this stir-fry now that chicken should be good and browned all over and the edges should be getting just a little bit crispy the next thing in is going to be 15 grams of ginger and 10 grams of garlic for the ginger i peeled a large knob of it and then microplaned it into a fine pulp and for the garlic i did the exact same thing i would probably normally use a garlic press for this but the microplane was already dirty and so that garlic gets the rasp dude up next is five grams of chili to our bowl followed by one gram of crushed szechuan peppercorns if you're not familiar these are a chinese spice that come from a little prickly shrub and they basically make your mouth tingle in a super weird way it makes your tongue feel like it's hallucinating and then also kind of temporarily changes the way flavors taste a little goes a very long way so if you're new to it i would dip your toe in the waters lightly at first otherwise you would risk ruining your dinner i've definitely done that speaking of a little bit going a very long way so does all 22 grams of this little energy bar from the sponsor of this video verb energy i tend to suffer pretty hard from an afternoon energy slump every day right around 2 45 and one of these little bars is a great way to get a sustained boost of energy throughout the afternoon so that i can finish whatever i need to before it's dinner time the dosage of caffeine here is equal to one shot of espresso but and this is very important for me the caffeine comes from green tea so instead of a lightning bolt of dark jittery energy from a shot of coffee you get something that's way more subtle with way less crash also these bars come in a bunch of different flavors i happen to be partial to this double chocolate one because i like to keep it kind of sinful for my caffeinated snacks they're gluten free they're dairy free and vegan as well so everybody can partake and guess what pumpkin spice latte verb energy bar as well wow so to try verb click the link in my description and get a trial pack of four of virb's most popular flavored bars just for the cost of shipping that's only 95 cents and then you get to see if these bars will get you over that afternoon hump like they do for me link is in the description thanks very much verb energy the szechuan peppercorns are going to get smashed under a heavy bottom pot so that they more evenly disperse throughout the dish and i don't accidentally pop into a whole one and ruin my tongue for like a half hour if you guys are a little bit scared about the tongue acid trip thing feel free to leave them out i really like them but in moderation for sure now i'm gonna start everything to combine and then keep stirring constantly because the ginger the garlic and those arbo chilis can burn in a pan this hot pretty easily after about 30-40 seconds of stir-frying now i'm gonna add in 75 grams of red bell peppers and 75 grams of celery we want large snappy vegetables in this stir-fry so i'm going to cut this pepper into a three-quarter inch size piece that's going to be big enough to be fried hard on the outside but stay kind of snappy on the inside and i did a very similar thing for the celery i cut the stalk top to bottom in half and then came back and cut it on a bias into large three-quarter inch size pieces like this now this celery is not going to turn to mush when we cook it with everything else and now we're going to toss all these vegetables together and continue to stir fry this over high heat for another 45 to 60 seconds once the veggies have just started to lose that raw edge in goes my sauce and as you can see that comes right up to a hard simmer in a really hot pan like this to make this sauce i combined 75 grams of soy sauce 25 grams of dark brown sugar 25 grams of chinese black vinegar this is a new ingredient for my pantry it tastes kind of like it looks actually it's savory but dark and just a little bit sweet it's a very cool ingredient but if you can't get it i'd say sub in rice vinegar behind that comes 25 grams of mirin white wine if you don't have it 20 grams of sesame oil and then three grams of corn starch i'm gonna stir all that up and if you have a few tiny clumps of cornstarch floating around like this that's totally okay the high heat is going to melt those out in a second when this sauce hits the pan right away that little bit of cornstarch is going to thicken this sauce slightly and that moist heat's going to also help finish cooking the vegetables as that bubbles up and reduces i'm going to add in 75 grams of chopped scallions as you can see i've cut these into pretty large batons that's going to help them keep their texture after being cooked now another stir up and toss toss to get everything incorporated and then in goes my fried peanuts from earlier i'm going to toss those until they're combined and then i'm going to take this whole thing off the heat if you like your kung pao a little bit more saucy now is where you would add in 25 grams of chicken stock or water will also work stir that into combine and if you like a tighter drier more glazy kung pao don't use any stock i like mine with a little bit of sauciness to it because it helps saturate the rice of course before i put this up i'm going to give it a really quick taste for salt and overall pepperiness and spice this needs just a little bit more salt to sharpen it up and now we're ready to plate first thing goes down is a big dollop of steamed rice then a bunch of kung pao on top of that and there should be just a little bit of sauce in the pan to drizzle over the top as well take a look at this thing this dish is very intense it's hot from the chilies and the peppercorns it's crunchy from all those peanuts and of course that chicken is just a little bit crisp around the edges but wait a second hold on kung pao chicken is delicious but surely there's other proteins to which you could do the same thing there's two variations i've made recently that thought were good enough to share shrimp and tofu there's just a few small tweaks to the process for each one to get them right so let's start with the shrimp hot pan oil goes in then goes the peanuts i'm going to fry those until they're golden brown and aromatic then i'm going to set them aside to drain back over high heat in goes a bunch more oil than one pound or about a half kilo of shrimp spread that out and fry hard on one side a bunch of salt goes in then a ton of black pepper and then a large dose of chili flakes as well we're gonna give that a lively toss toss to get everything combined and after maybe 40 seconds of cooking or so on very high heat these shrimp are going to be cooked about 75 i'm gonna take them out of the pan and put them over with the peanuts while i finish cooking the rest of this dish now i'm gonna put the pan back on heat more oil goes in then goes the garlic the ginger and the arbol chilis same amounts as before i'm going to stir fry that up until everything is starting to smell aromatic and just barely taking on some color then 75 grams of bell pepper 75 grams of celery and now i'm gonna add in one gram of crushed szechuan peppercorns just like before i'm going to stir fry everything for another 60 seconds or so from here or until these veggies are just starting to soften up then in goes my sauce same for the chicken kung pao then the whole thing is going to get brought up to a simmer as it bubbles and starts to thicken in goes 75 grams of scallions and then we're gonna add in all that shrimp and peanuts i'll toss toss to combine and then cook it for another 20 to 30 seconds or until that sauce is at the right texture and that shrimp is cooked all the way through taste it for seasoning and i want to reiterate this dish should be peppery as hell it should be very in your face and pungent and make you sweat on the back of your neck just a little bit that looks amazing that shrimp kung pao now what about tofu the secret here is to use extra firm tofu and to stir fry it a lot longer than you would think extra firm tofu has a lot less residual water in it than say a soft or silken style tofu and that makes this ideal for high heat oil based cooking the water in a soft tofu would basically explode in a really hot oily pan like the one that we're cooking with today once this is all diced up into roughly one inch cubes we're gonna repeat the process that we've seen twice now but with a few tweaks oil goes in then the peanuts fry until they're brown move them to a towel reheat the pan with a generous amount of oil and then in goes the tofu a little bit more oil actually this stuff is going to be cooking for like 12 to 15 minutes and it needs a decent amount then a strong pinch of salt goes over the whole lot and next i'm gonna let this tofu sit here for two to three minutes to get some color and i'm gonna stir every two to three minutes from that point on until it's closer and closer to this this tofu is no longer flabby and bland the outside is now savory and interesting and it no longer tastes like napkins now in goes a very generous pinch of black pepper then some chili flake i'll toss toss that to combine and now you know the drill ginger garlic chilies same quantities as before i'll stir fry that up bell peppers then celery cook this stirring a bunch more for maybe a minute and once the vegetables are just starting to get softened in goes the sauce and then we're going to reduce it till bubbly in goes the scallions cook those veggies for a minute the tofu is going to absorb some of that flavorful sauce and oh yeah make sure you add in the fried peanuts there at the end and there we go a very delicious way to eat tofu just fry it hard you guys and it actually will be something that you want to eat so whether you're kung powing chicken or shrimp or bean curd this is a really simple process that is going to get you where you want to go the homemade version of this dish is fresher and sharper and all around just better than something from a strip mall i really hope you guys give it a try soon the full recipe and imperial measurements are in the description let's eat this thing you

Channel: Brian Lagerstrom

Views: 368,364

Keywords: kung pao chicken, kung pao shrimp, kung pao tofu, Kung Pao Chicken recipe, Szechuan chicken, Szechuan pepper, pepper chicken, sichuan pepper, sichuan chicken, kung pao sauce, kung pow, peppercorn sauce, stir fry chicken, Chinese food, Chinese takeout, chicken stir fry, kung pao recipe, Brian lagerstrom, weeds and sardines, cooking, recipes, quick dinners, gluten free

Id: 76ciBdHJZeI

Length: 12min 4sec (724 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 07 2021