Food Lab Basics: POV Kung Pao Chicken

The Sichuan classic, and one of my favorite dishes of all time. Unlike some Sichuan dishes, this one is not particularly fiery. It has a balanced heat with plenty of citrus aroma and mouth-numbing tingles from Sichuan peppercorns. If you like it hotter, you can leave the seeds in the dried chiles, or you can add some pickled chilies, some chili paste, or some minced fresh hot chilies (like Thai Bird, E.G.) when you add the sauce towards the end.
I make it with chicken thigh in this video, but it's equally good (maybe even better?) with chicken breast - so long as you don't overcook that breast.
You can find a video of me making it with breast here: www.seriouseat...
And you can get the exact recipe here: www.seriouseat...
This may have been the dish that inspired me to start writing my second cookbook, which is all about cooking in a wok (it'll be out in 2021).
PLEASE READ!
The coronavirus has hit many folks hard, including first responders and hospital workers, individuals and families who were already food insecure, and service industry employees who are, for the large part, currently out of a job.
My goal is to help fix both these problems in the best way I know how to contribute: organizing people, and cooking food.
If you would like to donate to our free meal fund, head to www.toasttab.c... where you can buy a boxed meal for someone in need. These boxes go directly to the frontline workers and food insecure families who have been hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. They also allow me to hire back my kitchen team to cook and pack these meals (in a safe, clean way). So far we have served nearly 500 meals, and the number goes up every week.
If you would like to make a monthly recurring donation of any size, head to my Patreon account at / kenjilopezalt . 100% of the proceeds go directly to the free meal fund. You can also help by buying my books at bookshop.org/shop/kenjilopezalt where 100% of my sales commission goes to the free meal fund, and an additional 10% goes to independent book stores around the country.
Finally, stay safe. Here is my guide to food safety and the coronavirus, written with the consultation of virologists, food safety experts, and infectious disease specialists, and kept up to date as new research emerges: www.seriouseat...