宮保雞丁 1.1 (Kung Pao Chicken 1.1)

You can have fun going crazy figuring out what's different- I've probably made this dish with another 30 pounds of chicken and am putting some fine adjustments on it now.  I've tried using peanut butter, whole chilis, crushed chilis, toasted and non-toasted spices, etc.

I think this is as good as its going to get without a revolution in my approach.

The stuff

• 1-1.5 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed to L = 15mm, brined.  If you're not sure what 15mm looks like, get a ruler.  This dish works with pieces up to 1" cube in size.
• 1/3c coarse crushed peanuts, roasted (see below)

 Sauce stuff

• 2 green onions, whites thinly sliced oblique and greens reserved for garnish
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• .5" ginger, grated
• 2 TB soy
• 2 TB 紹興酒 Shao xing rice wine
• 2 TB dark brown sugar, packed
• 1+1 TB lemon juice, divided (Using a sour grapefruit also works)
• 2 TB crushed red chilis
• 1 TB 花椒 (Sichuan peppercorns)
• OPTIONAL: zest of a half a lemon (or grapefruit zest if using for the acid)

-To get peanuts roasted, dry toast in a wok or skillet on medium heat until fragrant.  Or, put in a 350F oven, stirring every 5 minutes, for a total of 15 minutes, or until fragrant.

-Dry toast the peppercorns until fragrant, then remove.  Do the same to the crushed chilis.  Take both and grind in a spice grinder until very fine.  Warning: this step may make you want to die from the volatile fumes.

-Once chicken is brined, thoroughly wash chicken and drain.  Mix with just enough cornstarch that the chicken starts sticking to itself, probably 2 to 3 tablespoons.  You should err on the side of too much starch- during this step, you really need a "batter" as opposed to a coating so that the pancake maintains its integrity for flipping.  This allows an otherwise impossible thing to do without sauteing the breast whole- establishing a flavorful crust.

-Heat a well seasoned wok with about 1 tablespoon of cooking oil until shimmering.  Add the garlic and green onion whites and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add the chicken and spread out into a single layered "pancake" (if your wok is small, divide the chicken into appropriate sized batches).  Cook for about 2 minutes or until you can see the chicken start turning white from cooking up to about a third of the thickness.  Shake the wok to make sure the pancake is loose- if it isn't, gently use the spatula to loosen trouble spots until the whole thing is sliding around your wok like a giant puck. Flip the pancake (or slide the chicken out onto a plate and flip the whole assembly back into the wok uncooked side down).  Cook another 2 minutes or until this side starts showing white coming up the sides of the chicken as well.  Break the pancake with the spatula and then wait for another 30 seconds for the freshly exposed starch to set.  Toss in the wok until the chicken is just tinged pink in most areas, about another minute or two.  Reserve chicken.  You want it slightly undercooked (90% ish) so that rolling it around in the extremely hot kung pao caramel will bring it to perfectly cooked.

-Heat the sauce ingredients excluding the 1 reserved tablespoon of lemon juice on high until it turns into a very thick, dark caramel with lots of small bubbles forming.  Add the ground chilis/peppercorns.  You want this to be REALLY thick because the juices and oil on the exterior of the chicken will dilute the sauce when you mix it.  Add the chicken, half of the peanuts, and remaining lemon juice and coat the chicken and finish cooking it, about another 30 seconds to a minute.  Plate the chicken, sprinkle with remaining roasted peanuts and green onion greens and serve immediately.

Basic brines

Why brine?  Because it makes things taste better.  Not necessary for everything, just low fat items such as chicken breast and pork loin.  You can flavor your brine with whatever you want, but I would keep the sodium and sugar content at the levels indicated, i.e. if you want to use soy sauce, use correspondingly less salt to maintain the same concentration.  Also, I wouldn't brine with black pepper or acidic ingredients: we have a mental association with hot dogs, ham, and spam with that flavor.  Because I prefer not to flavor my brine, most people never notice that my food is brined at all other than asking, "why is your chicken breast as juicy as dark meat?"

Concentration of the brine is what counts: YMMV of how much you need based on the shape of your meat and the shape of your container.

Saturated quick brine for ~ 1lb of meat:

• 3TB DCK salt (note: if using other brands of salt, look up the sodium/volume measure and adjust accordingly.  E.g. if using Morton's kosher use 2 TB.  Don't use iodized.)
• 3TB sugar (tip: baker's sugar dissolves easier)
• 1.5C water

 Mix everything up cold, rubbing the crystals with your fingers to dissolve them.  Add meat.  Brine time will vary based on the shape of your food: for small pieces, like 10mm-25mm cubes for stir-frying or slices for 水煮, 30 minutes is fine.  Larger chunks, like 25mm+ cubes or whole chicken breast will require 45 minutes to an hour.  For very large items, I recommend a long brine, which is listed below.

8 hour to 1 week brine:

• .25C DCK salt
• .25C sugar
• 3C water

For long brine, you REALLY want to follow my advice about not using acids or peppercorn or iodized salt.  This is stronger than the classic brine you'll typically find online that would be 4C water for that much salt and sugar, but this works better in my experience. Again, the typical complaints about spamminess aren't due to the brine so much as the weird things people like to put in their brine.  As a side effect, this helps your meat keep longer, but don't come sue me later when you get food poisoning from chicken sashimi that's been sitting in brine for 3 months.

Brined food will not need to be seasoned with salt anymore, but for asian foods involving fish sauce or soy sauce you typically won't have to adjust.  Just start with half as much and work your way up if you're paranoid, but don't be surprised when you end up using the original recipe amount at the end: the sugar in the brine does a lot to counteract the saltiness.