General Tso Chicken is delicious made hot and fresh right at home!
This chicken dish has a spicy-sweet sauce made with simple ingredients and easy prep. Serve over rice for the perfect meal.
What is General Tso’s Chicken?
General Tso Chicken is a tasty chicken dish with a sweet and sticky sauce that may have been created in right here in North America!
We love the way it pairs with oven-baked rice and Sesame Ginger Snap Peas!
Ingredients & Variations
The name of the game is simple ingredients that are easy to find in any market!
MEAT
We love juicy chicken breasts, thighs will work too if that’s what you have on hand!
SAUCE
Hoisin sauce, chicken broth, cornstarch, and other additions make for the sweet and spicy sauce we all love so much!
SPICES
Here’s where it’s easy to customize this dish. Use extra dried red chili peppers, or for less spice just halve or even quarter the amount. It’s up to the tastes of the individual! Ginger and garlic also add great flavor, so play around with the amounts to achieve the perfect blend that will suit any taste!
How to Make General Tso Chicken
This recipe is ready in just a few easy steps!
- Dredge chopped chicken with egg and cornstarch.
- Pan fry in small batches (per recipe below) until crisp.
- Make the sauce and toss with chicken. Garnish with green onion and serve!
PRO TIP: To cut chicken breasts into uniform chunks, just place in the freezer for 1/2 hour before chopping! This makes it super easy to cut!
Tips for Success
- Be sure to preheat the oil before frying to ensure super tender chunks of tasty chicken! Don’t overcook.
- Adjust the heat level by adding more or less chili flakes.
- Thicken using a cornstarch slurry.
- If desired, peppers are a great addition to this recipe.
Take-Out at Home
- Easy Mongolian Beef – a family favorite
- Easy Homemade Chow Mein – with fresh veggies
- Shrimp Lo Mein – quick!
- Beef and Broccoli – 30-minute meal
- Kung Pao Shrimp – spicy & savory
- Easy Fried Rice Recipe
Did your family love this General Tso Chicken? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
General Tso's Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless chicken breasts
- salt & pepper to taste
- 2 eggs beaten
- ½ cup cornstarch + 2 tablespoons, divided
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil or as needed, divided
- 2 green onions thinly sliced, white and green divided
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
Sauce
- ½ cup low sodium chicken broth
- ¼ cup soy sauce low sodium
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 dried red chili peppers whole, or 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Cut chicken breasts into 1" cubes. Season with salt & pepper and toss with egg. Remove chicken from egg and toss with ½ cup cornstarch.
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add half of the chicken and cook until crisp and cooked through, about 5-6 minutes. Repeat with remaining chicken, adding more oil if needed. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- For the sauce, combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add the whites of the green onion, garlic, and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in sauce ingredients and simmer 2-3 minutes or until thickened.
- Combine remaining 2 tablespoons cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water. Slowly drizzle cornstarch into the sauce while whisking until it is slightly thickened. Toss sauce with cooked chicken and garnish with remaining green onion.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Chicken, Entree, Main Course
Cuisine American, Asian© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Was ok. Was bitter, I think I would add more sugar.
Won’t be making this again unfortunately
Thanks for trying our recipe, Laura!
This is so good! Better than any restaurant hands down!
After reading all the reviews I added a little more brown sugar. It was perfectly balanced sweet heat. Everyone in the house LOVED it!! Another great recipe by Holly. Thank you for all your recipes!!
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe Mike!
Fantastic recipe! I have made this a few times and get rave reviews. I did increase the brown sugar by one tablespoon but otherwise followed the recipe as written.
Was very good but needs a little bit more brown sugar in my opinion!
Hi Holly! Around how many chicken breasts do you use normally? I know that it depends on the size of the breast but I was wondering if I use two breast (about one inch thick) if that will be enough.
1 ½ pounds is 4 chicken breasts, approximately 6-7oz each. Enjoy Sandra!
Made this dish for my family. Very delicious better than takeout. Did not alter in any way, my family loved every forkful therefore, I give this recipe 5 stars.
Thanks Holly.
Mia
So happy to hear that Mia! You’re welcome!
Can you omit the egg and just use cornstarch like in the Mongolian beef recipe… which by the way was easy and fast. The flank steak was so tender and my family wanted seconds!!
I haven’t tried this particular recipe without the egg. It’s used to make sure the cornstarch sticks so if you skip it, you’ll want to moisten the chicken just enough so the cornstarch can stick to it. Let us know how it works out for you!
I would love to try this but have to eat gluten-free and hoisin sauce is not gluten-free. Any suggestions as to what I can replace it with? I haven’t been able to find a gluten-free hoisin sauce in Canada.
I was able to find GF Hoisin on Amazon Canada (although it’s a bit pricey). Hoisin has a unique flavor but you could try a bit of oyster sauce (if you have a GF version). If not, a little brown sugar for sweetness or even a bit of teriyaki sauce.
I will love to learn more
What if I don’t have low sodium broth and soy sauce, can use regular? Would I have to leave out something else.
You can use regular, the dish will be a little bit saltier but still delicious! (You can likely skip the salt to taste on the chicken itself).