How To Make General Tso Sauce Recipe
General Tso sauce is the half soul of General Tso’s chicken which is a famous Chinese recipe in the world. But it is very easy to make and can save your time when you the General Tso’s chicken.In fact, it not only can be used in the chicken but also can be used at many other Chinese recipes like Szechuan chicken, Hunan Chicken, Hunan beef.
After the short description about this sauce below, we will start the real travel to make it at home. If you don’t want to know the story behind it, just skip it and scroll to the how to make this sauce from scratch parts. We provide the most easiest method (step by step and youtube video) to help you to make the best sauce.
What Is General Tso Sauce?
You must have been wondering how such a complicated name to describe a sauce came to be. Originally, the sauce was used in another Chinese takeout dish, the General Tso’s chicken. The name, General Tso, originated from an ancient Chinese leader from the Qing dynasty known as Zuo Zongtang. His name was Romanized to Tso Tsungtang.
General Tso’s Chicken
A story is told of a chef in a certain restaurant, Chef Peng, who invented the dish and the sauce in his restaurant in Taiwan. The uniqueness of the sauce made the prowess of the cook to spread, and after a short while, it became the talk of the city. It was later named after Tso. The fame of the sauce did not stop at that, since it spread to the English nations. Through this, there have been several modifications in the sauce. Partly this was caused by the Americans who tweaked theirs to be a little bit sweeter, unlike the original version which is hot courtesy of the Hunanese influence.
How To Make General Tso Sauce Easy
You should prepare all of the materials before you make this sauce. You can jump to the end to see the recipe that provides the detail ingredients. But you also see the steps below first and prepare your materials in when you want to make this sauce. Every step we recorded the detail for you, you can click the play button to play the video to see the action. You also can see the whole video which from make the sauce to use this sauce in General Tso’s chicken in our youtube video, just click the see it. If you like it, remember to subscribe us.
Step 1: Precook Dry Red Pepper
First of all, Reduce 4 dry red pepper to several parts. Then clear pepper seed which will cause bitter taste and take more peppery taste.Pour some water into the pan and boil it. After that, add the dry red pepper to pan. Cooking it for at least 30 seconds. It can help dry red pepper to keep its color and won’t become black.
Precook Dry Red Pepper
It’s a very useful tip which can help you to cook the dry red pepper.Take it out for draining and set aside.If you don’t care its color, you can ignore this step.
Step 2: Add Main Ingredients To Mix
Add 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 2 tablespoons light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce, 1 tablespoon tomato sauce, 1/2 teaspoon pepper to the bowl and then mix them. Stir the mixture until the ingredients mix enough.
Add Main Ingredients To Mix
Step 3: Chop Garlic And Ginger To Be Ingredient
Chop two cloves of garlic and some ginger.
Chop Garlic And Ginger To Be Ingredient
Step 4: Chop Half Red Bell Pepper To Beautify Sauce
Sometimes we would like to choose some pepper or tomato to beautify the General Tso’s Chicken. In fact, it should be added when cooking the chicken. But if we just want to make General Tso Sauce and store it for future’s use, you can precook it in the sauce.
Chop Half Red Bell Pepper To Beautify Sauce
Step 5: Cook General Tso Sauce
Heating the pan hot enough. Pour 2 tablespoon corn oil into the pan. Adding precook dry red pepper into the pan. Fry it at least 15 seconds. Then add garlic and ginger, stir and cook at least 25 seconds. Pour ingredient’s mixture into the pan, stir and cook at least 25 seconds. Add 1 teaspoon cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water, stir and cook at least 25 seconds and turn it into thickening.Add the red bell pepper and 1 teaspoon sesame oil, stir and cook 30 seconds. That’s it. You get the sauce you want.
Cook General Tso Sauce
Step 6: Cut Chicken
For a healthier life, we’ll use chicken breast to carry out this recipe. We need about 260g chicken breast for the cook. Cutting the chicken breast to small block.
Cut Chicken
Step 7: Whisk One Egg
Whisk one egg and stir it enough. We’ll need it in some future steps.
Whisk One Egg
Step 8: Marinate Chicken
Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 egg mixture, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1/2 tablespoon water into the chicken breast. Stir it to make them mix enough.
Marinate Chicken
Step 9: Prepare Chicken Batter
Add 3 tablespoons wheat flour, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1/2 egg mixture, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 4 tablespoons water to combine. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the batter that help it has a great gloss.You should see the fine consistency in your batter. Just likes this in our video.
Prepare Chicken Batter
Step 10: Heat Oil For Deep Frying
Heating oil to the right temperature. We also can give you an easy way: put a drop of water into the pan, if it floats immediately that represent it hot enough.
Heat Oil For Deep Frying
Step 11: Mix Chicken With Batter And Start Frying
If the oil’s temperature become high, you can reduce the power of the fire of your device or even close it. Fry it for at least 10 minutes until it turns yellow.
Mix Chicken With Batter And Start Frying
Step 12: Remove Chicken From Fry #1
Remove chicken from the first deep fry and wait for the second one.
Remove Chicken From Fry #1
Step 13: Deep Dry Chicken Again
Heat the oil to the proper temperature again and pour slowly all of the chicken into it. The oil is very hot and we should utilize turner or other things slow the action. You don’t need to fry too long for the second deep fry. Just about 2 minutes. The second fry can help the chicken’s skin become very crunchy. The first fry is 300F(149 °C) and second fry is 350-400F(176 °C-204°C).
Deep Dry Chicken Again
Step 14: Mix Sauce And Chicken To Cook In Pan
Firstly pour the sauce into the pan and heat it hot enough. Then pour the chicken into the pan. Stir the chicken and make the chicken package with the sauce. If they mix enough, it represents you have made General Tso’s Chicken successfully.
Mix Sauce And Chicken To Cook In Pan
Tips On Ingredients In This Sauce
The main thickening agent in the ingredient list is the cornstarch. Adding the cornstarch to the other ingredients and heating the pot for a while does the trick when it comes to getting a more desirable consistency. Apart from that, white and brown sugar also caramelize, and in the process make the sauce thicker.
However, you must watch out on the use of cornstarch. Most people usually underestimate the required content when preparing the sauce. Don’t forget that the actual thickening occurs when the cornstarch is heated. If you expect that you will add the cornstarch until it is sufficiently thick, you may end up with a rude shock as the sauce may end up becoming a paste. For this reason, use controlled amount of cornstarch powder. You can always add more if you have heated for the recommended duration yet you have not achieved the target thickness.
Also, worth noting is the fact that wheat flour can also be used as an excellent thickening substitute. You don’t have to worry if you run out of cornstarch powder while you are mid preparations.
Chinkiang vinegar is a great substitute to rice vinegar. Scallions can be used for fragrance. If you can’t get hoisin sauce, you can use sriracha and barbecue sauce as an alternative.
FAQ About General Tso Sauce
How To Store The Sauce?
Unfortunately, while most people can make pretty good homemade general tso sauce, poor storage makes it lose its rich flavor fast. As a rule of thumb, you should store it in a refrigerator is you have an excess. That way, you can use it up to three weeks. On the same note, if you want to use it after a longer duration, say three months, you can choose to keep it frozen.
you can choose to keep it frozen
What Does General Tso Taste Like?
It ‘s full of sweet, sour and spicy in the same sauce. In fact, you can adjust the different ingredients to fit your taste. The sweet is from the sugar. The sour is from the vinegar. The spicy is from the dry red peppers. The salt and the soy sauce provide the salty taste. You can also use the light soy sauce and the dark soy sauce to adjust the black color of this sauce. The dark soy sauce will take more black and the light one will take less black.
Does The Sauce Recipe Have Rice Wine?
No, we don’t use the rice wine to do this. You can get all of the ingredients in the recipe need below. We provide three parts materials for you: sauce materials, marinate chicken materials, fry chicken paste materials. If you just want to make the sauce, you should choose the sauce materials. But if you want to make general tso’s chicken, you should choose all of them.
Is The Sauce Vegan?
Yes, the sauce is vegan. But if you use it in the chicken recipe, it is not vegan anymore.
Is The Sauce Spicy?
Yes, it’s mild spicy. But we provide a great method to help you reduce the spicy taste. You can see the step 1 which can help you to do this. The another way reduce the spicy taste is using less dry red peppers. We use 4 in this sauce. You can use 1 or 2.
Is The Sauce Healthy?
Yes, but if it uses in the chicken recipe, it won’t be healthy. But we choose the chicken breast which can be healthier choose.
Does The Sauce Have Peanuts?
No, please don’t confuse the General Tso’s Chicken with the Kung Pao Chicken. Kung Pao Chicken needs the peanuts.
That’s our today recipe about the General Tso Sauce and Gerneral Tso’s Chicken, hope it can help to cook the wonderful recipe. If you have any problem, please let me know.
General Tso Sauce & Chicken Recipe
Equipment(affiliate link)
- induction cooker
Ingredients(affiliate link)
General Tso Sauce Materials
- 4 dry red peppers
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato sauce
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 2 cloves garlic fresh, finely crushed
- some ginger fresh, finely crushed
- ½ red bell pepper
- 2 tablespoons corn oil
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Marinate Chicken Materials
- 250 g chicken breast
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ egg
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- ½ tablespoon water
Fry Chicken Paste Materials
- 3 tablespoons wheat flour
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- ½ egg
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 4 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Precook Dry Red Pepper
- Add Main Ingredients To Mix
- Chop Garlic And Ginger To Be Ingredient
- Chop Half Red Bell Pepper To Beautify Sauce
- Cook General Tso Sauce
- Cut Chicken
- Whisk One Egg
- Marinate Chicken
- Prepare Chicken Batter
- Heat Oil For Deep Frying
- Mix Chicken With Batter And Start Frying
- Remove Chicken From Fry #1
- Deep Dry Chicken
- Mix Sauce And Chicken To Cook In Pan
Dennis Brice Jordan
When I printed the sauce recipe the ingredients were displayed, but not the directions..
Jack Smith
Hi, Dennis, When is the error cause? Is after clicking the print button or after printting the recipe on the paper?
Jessie
Awesomely good flavor❤
I definitely will be reducing the pepper flakes next time, though. Maybe to around 1/2 or 3/4 T? I had a feeling when I was pouring it in that the 1 1/2 T was going to be too much compared to the amount of liquid that’s in the pot, but I wanted to taste the original recipe before I tweaked it. It’s pretty spicy as is, but it’s really yummy. I could just be a weenie😂
Jack Smith
Hi, Jessie. You can change the pepper flakes by your needs.It won’t change the main taste of this recipe.