Monday 1 September 2008

WK Fake General Tao Chicken Wings v1.0 ~ RECIPE

Oh he's back, and he's in wing form this time!

Our good old friend Zuǒ Zōngtáng. Better known as General Tao. As in General Tao's chicken. This is my favourite dish next to wings, and I got to thinking . . . what if I combined the two?!?! General Tao Chicken Wings was born. Ok FAKE General Tao Wings as I am not following a real recipe for the chicken.



WK Fake General Tao Wings v1.o

Ingredients:
For Sauce:
  • VH Pineapple Sauce
  • Vinegar
  • Soy Sauce
  • Siracha Hot Sauce
  • Corn Starch

INSTRUCTIONS:
  1. Mix all sauce ingredients together. How much? About 2/3 the VH sauce, splashes of all the rest
  2. Bread wings
  3. Fry wings (deep fry is best, I just stir fried)
  4. Pour sauce into wok until bubbling, add wings, toss, serve

All the liquid components. And Corn Starch, which I have never used before. Boy does it work well as a thickening agent.

The sauces all mixed up - the cornstarch must be stirred in well. This does not look like traditional General Tao at all.

Breading the wings. The wings were marinated with a touch of soy sauce, s&p, and a bit of cayenne. When I was ready to bread, I dropped in an egg, mixed it around, then dunked the drummettes and flappers into the flour.


Using chopsticks to bread the wings.

The wings stir fried. I should have cooked them longer.


This is a stir fry that went with the wings. Nothing special, beef, peppers, onion, mini corn, water chestnuts.


The sauce was bubbled, hot and gooey. Tossed in the cooked wings. I was excited at this point.

The final project. General Tao Wings (fake) and stir fry.


The wings looked sooooooo good. I was stoked. I took like 10 photos because I couldn't believe how good they looked to me. Crispy looking wings, sticky sauce. What could be wrong?


Well the sauce was good. Very thick. Very gooey. Of course it wasn't like real GTC, but it was a pretty good knock off. Sweet, spicy, it was all there.


The problem with the wings were the wings. The chicken that is. The skin and breading was great. But I wish I had cooked the wings longer. Not that it wasn't cooked - the meat was white all the way through, but it was chewy. I was disappointed. I just kept liking the sauce off my fingers. I eventually stopped and later in the evening I baked the wings again (sauce and all) and that improved the chicken, and didn't hurt the sauce at all.


What I would do different to the sauce? Next time I will add a few ingredients I forgot to put in that I planned on. But not a whole lot more. One day I will make a classic General Tao sauce for sure for the wings. Overall, I think a success!

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