Kung Pao Chicken

Kung pao chicken (gōngbǎo jīdīng) is a Qing-dynasty Sichuan dish named after Ding Baozhen, a Sichuan governor of the 1870s whose honorary imperial title was Gōngbǎo ('palace guardian'). The dish is attributed to his preference for a specific style of stir-fried chicken, and it became widely known after his tenure.

Bite-sized pieces of chicken thigh (not breast — the fat content and texture differ significantly) are marinated in soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and cornflour, then briefly wok-tossed at very high heat with whole dried red chillies, Sichuan peppercorns, roasted peanuts and a small amount of scallion and garlic. A sauce of soy, black rice vinegar, sugar and chicken stock is added in the final seconds of cooking and reduces rapidly to a glaze that coats everything.

The flavour profile is one of the canonical Sichuan combinations: mala (numbing-hot from Sichuan peppercorn and chilli), suan (sour from vinegar), tian (sweet from sugar) and xian (savory from soy) simultaneously, with the peanuts providing crunch and fat. Done correctly, it is a more complex dish than its global ubiquity suggests.

The overseas version — thicker, sweeter, often with bell peppers — is a separate dish that shares the name. In Chengdu, the original is sharper, drier and less sweet. Chilli count varies significantly between street and restaurant versions.