Gong Bao Ji Ding
Gong bao ji ding (宫保鸡丁 – literally ‘The Palace Guardian’s Diced Chicken’) is a Sichuan dish hugely popular around China, but most well known outside China as the origins of the Westernised classics kungpao chicken and chicken with cashew nuts.
Westernised versions – commonly using the old Wade-Giles romanisation of ‘kung pao’ instead of the pinyin ‘gong bao’ – often use capsicum/peppers instead of dried chillies, leave out Sichuan peppercorns (Sichuan peppercorn imports were banned in the US for a period) and incorporate more Cantonese ingredients and techniques (as the majority of Chinese chefs in the US and Australia are of Cantonese origin rather than Sichuanese) such as hoisin sauce.
This is an authentic Sichuanese version of the dish.
Ingredients
1 large chicken breast , cut into 1.5cm cubes
3 tbsp vegetable oil
12-15 large dried chillies, seeds removed, snipped into 1cm lengths
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tsp grated ginger
6 thick spring onions (about 1cm in diameter), cut into 1cm pieces
½ cup unsalted roasted peanuts
a little cornflour mixed with cold water, to thicken
Chicken marinade
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp Shaoxing wine
1 tsp cornflour
Gong bao sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
Method
Combine the chicken with the chicken marinade and set aside. Heat a wok over high heat until very hot, add the oil and then add the dried chillies and Sichuan peppercorns. When fragrant (this will just take a few seconds), add the chicken and toss well for a minute or two until the chicken is separated and browned. Add the garlic, ginger and spring onions and continue to toss over heat until the chicken is nearly cooked through. Add the sauce and toss to coat, adding a little cornflour mixed with water if needed to thicken the mixture so that it coats the chicken well. Stir through the peanuts and serve immediately.
https://youtu.be/D8myaMkiZAQ
Top Tips for Gong Bao Ji Ding
- You don’t have to eat all of the chillies and peppercorns in the dish. They are included to flavour the oil that coats the chicken. That said, many people (myself included) love crunching on a bit of chilli and Sichuan pepper when eating this dish.
- Sichuanese cuisine is known for its ‘ma-la’ – the hot and numbing sensation of the combination of Sichuan pepper and chilli, but you also need to pay attention to the balance of tastes in the dish. The taste profile of Sichuanese food is sweeter than many give it credit for, so make sure the sugar and vinegar in the sauce are well balanced.
What brand of Chinese cleaver are you using ? I would like to get one .
This is actually a Japanese brand of cleaver, but for Chinese cleavers the best are CCK cleavers. Most big Chinese grocers will have them.
It is delicious!!! Thanks for the recipe Adam
This is an excellent recipe. My family loved it. Thank you for sharing.
This is an excellent recipe. My family loved it. Thank you for sharing.
This was an excellent recipe! Thank you for sharing! Love your vids.
Adam! Great recipe my good man!
I used some crazy dried chillis from the local Chinese grocer that said “HOTTEST DRIED CHILLI” on the packet. They were not lying! We were in for a full-body sensory experience of the best kind. Thanks for sharing these great recipes.
I’m going to give it a go, looks yummy, thank you Adam for sharing.
My son and I cooked this last night yum and the pieces of chilli even better. Very straight forward to make put this one on my top cooks for the future
Brilliant Adam. I just followed your recipe to the dot with the exception of adding 1 tsp salt. The flavours were explosive. Loved it. Will experiment more with it. Thank you!!! Can you also do a mongolian beef recipe, the savoury style not the sweet.
That’s a very good recipe. That was loved by my parents. Thank you so much for caring. to bring it on my top cooks for the future
If we don’t have the wine and the dark vinegar and dark soy- is there still a point to be making it without these two essential items?
Vandana: I have seen a number of potential substitutions for these ingredients, not all of which I have tried, but they all seem reasonable. For the wine, cooking sherry should be acceptable, but I would not recommend using no alcohol whatsoever unless you really can’t consume it. For the dark vinegar, a good balsamic. The dark soy is used mainly for coloring, by my understanding, so you should be able to substitute more of the regular soy. And for the Szechuan peppercorns (to which one of my crew is allergic), a mixture of black pepper and coriander seems to work just fine, even if some will insist that it’s not authentic without the numbing effect that you get from the real deal. Good luck!
Tried this last night and loved it!
We weren’t huge fans of eating the whole szechuan peppercorns though. Does toasting and grinding them before adding to the oil have as good an effect?
I made this dish once without all the proper ingredients. I had to order the peppercorns and black vinegar from Amazon, and it is simply night and day. Superior flavor and the family loved it.
Thank You Adam
Hey Adam, how many people do you usually serve your recipes to? Is it for 1 person?
Aren’t the Sichuan pepper corns meant to be grinded in a mortar or something like that before you add them into the pan together with the chilies?
If you put them into the dish as a whole I don’t think they unleash their full flavors aside from the obvious chewing issues.
I’ve seen many other cooks grinding the Sichuan pepper corns first. Some of them even roast them for a few minutes in a pan at medium heat (no oil, just the pepper corns) before grinding them to even further enhance their flavors.
What kind of chili’s did you use in this dish? All I have is dried new Mexican red (pablano) chili peppers but I could order anything…