Gongbao Ji Ding (宫保鸡丁) recipe

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Remember this?  I bought chicken drumsticks because it was cheaper. Today I deboned 4 drumsticks before they start turning bad.

 Since it is Gongbao Chicken, we gotta cut them into small pieces right? So I did that.

Add this to the bowl of chicken cuts as marinate:

a pinch of salt
2 tsp light soy sauce
2 tsp  corn flour
2 tsp water
2 tsp shaoxing wine or any cooking wine

As the chicken is cut to small pieces, you do not need to marinate a great deal of time.  After this step, just prepare the rest of the procedures and you can cook it immediately after.

Now prepare the sauce that makes or break this dish:

3 tsp of sugar
3 tsp of balsamic vinegar. If you are too poor like me, you can use a cheaper substitute: I used this:

1 tsp of chicken stock (powder or 1 cube is fine)
1 tsp of sesame oil - do not leave this out
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce

Mix these into a bowl and if it looks something like that, you are on the right track.

We are not finished yet.  Slap 2 cloves of garlic out of their skins and throw them into the pan with a little bit of oil on low flame.  While it is frying the garlic out slowly, quickly slice up 7 slices of ginger and cut them into thin strips and add them to their friends in the pan.  

Stir a bit and let it be.  Meanwhile, throw a few pieces of dried chilies into the fray.  I don't have any of them here with me today so I used fresh chillies, the outcome taste as brilliant as it should be.

If you have a few peppercorns to spare, add them in as well.

Fry, take a breath, smile. When it smells all right to you, add in the chicken and turn up maximum flame.
Make sure your hands are moving fast from now. Fry and fry please.


 It should look something like that at this stage.

It should look something like that in a minute.

And better in another minute (no pics though), brownish golden.

Final step, add the sauce you have prepared earlier and give it some time for the chicken to absorb the sauces.  Lower the flame if necessary.

End product would be something satisfying and really good with steamed rice.

 Again, this tastes better than it looks. Try it yourself if you don't believe =)
Our brunch of the day.
Our Taiwanese housemate could not resist and took 2 bites and gave a thumbs up to it.

Jenny the good critic couldn't stop eating it so I gather it is good.




Credits:

I chanced upon the recipe while searching for Gong Bao chicken. After reading a bit, I realised it is the blog of another Singaporean. What a coincidence!

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