Gong Bao Chicken With Peanuts Recipe (2024)

Kung Pow and Peking reflect the old system of romanizing Mandarin (known as Wade-Giles), whereas Peking and Gong Bao use the pinyin (literally, "spelling sound") romanization system that's now standard in mainland China and in teaching Mandarin. They're a better approximation of the Mandarin sound for English speakers. If you went to China and asked for Kung Pow chicken they would have no idea what you're talking about, but Gong Bao chicken will get you what you want.

Although the video shows peeling ginger with a knife, most of you probably know to peel, as frugal Asian cooks do, with a spoon. It navigates the bumps and curves without losing so much of the vegetable.

Ms. Moskin, I covet the wok in your video. It looks like a heavy-duty, well made carbon steel wok. Would love to know where it was purchased.

Thanks for this recipe, and for the lead on Fuschia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice. Made this with chicken thighs (dark meat always wins out over white in my kitchen): delicious complex flavor, without being complicated. As a final garnish, we crumbled the microwave-crisped chicken skin (which cooks up just like bacon - I use a Pyrex pie plate, with a paper towel draped over as a splatter shield) over all and quickly realized there was no way there'd be leftovers for lunch tomorrow...

I put the peppercorns in the oil first and stir fried until they darkened then removed. They flavored the oil nicely and no one got hurt.

Peking is now Beijing, Bombay now Mumbai, Rangoon now Yangon, and now my beloved Kung Pow chicken — which, by the way is spelled that way on every Chinese menu in the English-speaking world — now has to be Gong Bao? Someone please tell me... what's the point? You're ruining an episode of Seinfeld!

I used a package of very firm tofu (instead of chicken) and doubled the ingredients for the marinade and sauce. Absolutely delicious!

Thought I got all the seeds out of the chilis. I noticed my failure when I put them in the wok...really tasty, but really hot. On the plus side, we’ll have leftovers because we both filled up with water. I’ll make it again after I get the feeling back in my lips

I had trouble not burning the dried chile, and after two attempts of following the instructions, I cooked the peppercorns in the oil first and included the dried chiles in with the chicken so there was a barrier to protect them from burning. Turned out delicious! I also only had ginger paste on hand, which worked just as well. Highly recommend this recipe. It's easy to modify too depending on what you have in the fridge -- carrots and celery work great here.

i hope you found THE wok. if not, perhaps this will help. ms. moskin's wok looks to be a "traditional cast iron" wok from china. "the wok shop" in san francisco carries a HUGE range of woks including this wok that you covet. :-) google it. they have excellent explanation and instruction on seasoning the wok. btw, the 14" version is more than adequate.

AKlik, I hope you realize my earlier post was intended to be humorous. But as long as we're on the subject, all this renaming is getting tedious. Shall we say paREE? How about muskVAH (the correct Russian pronunciation of Moscow)? With Ukraine (oo-cry-EE-nah) in the news lately, "iy" endings on names are popping up even though there is no difference in sound from just "y." Why complicate things? "Gong bao" is just confusing (and very selective) snobbery.

The next time I make this I'll reduce the peanuts to 2oz., reduce the cooking oil to 1tbsp. And increase the amount of scallions and ginger and add those in a little later. Good flavor and quick to cook. Although prep time is a little bit longer than I would like I will make this again.

That happens in my house too!

I added 0.5 grams of peanuts but that was a bit too much.

the video, while visually compelling, offers no help to learning how to prepare this dish. slow it down, put it in order, make instruction the priority the making the video.

An easy and delicious recipe for Kung Pao Chicken. It was a bit sweet for my taste so I might reduce or leave out the sugar next time. I too doubled the sauce which was perfect as I had a bit more chicken than was called for. I also didn't have the dried chilis and don't particularly like anything too hot so I used dried red pepper flakes for some zing. I love the peanuts in this but might reduce the number next time as it is a lot of peanuts.

Excellent recipe. We doubled the quantity of meat, but quadrupled the marinade and sauce, which worked for us.

If you looking for a side, I made with Sichuan green beans. Amazing dinner. (Cooks Illustrated July/Aug 2023) or here https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/15810-gan-bian-si-ji-dou-sichuan-green-beans

Gong Bao Ji Ding was one of my favorite meals when I lived in China. There was a summer when I think I ate it 5 times a week. Since coming back to the US I've hard such a hard time finding it. This recipe is a great version of it. There's no one way to make it, but this matches very closely to how a lot of places in China make it.One note: The reason some people are talking about burning the chilies is that the cook REALLY fast. Like less than 10 seconds fast. This whole dish cooks really fast

Perhaps obvious, but the spice level is highly dependent on the variety of dried chilis you use. We've made this recipe ten times, but tried a new brand/variety if chilis and 10 of them almost killed us!!

Needs celery and some red peppers for color. Also, as others, doubled the sauce.

Success! My family and I enjoyed this recipe. I served with brown rice. Dish is very tasty but cornstarch made thick. I'll make again and add 2-3 T more water. I made 2 changes to recipe: I used honey instead of sugar; I added 1/2 c small dice chop celery. Excellent!

My chiles and peppercorns burnt immediately when they hit oil heated on high. Wow, you really don’t want to burn Sichuan peppercorns- we had to open all the doors and windows. Second try at a lower temp worked fine, but was very spicy - think I would cut back on the peppercorns next time. I am normally pretty good with spicy food, but this was one of my first times using Sichuan pepper.

Spectacularly good. As recommended by others, I doubled both the marinade and sauce, using slightly less sugar than called for. I used 5 chilies and a pound of chicken, upped the garlic and ginger, and added some chopped celery and red bell pepper along with the ginger, garlic, and green onions. I simmered the mixture for about 10 minutes after adding the sauce to meld flavors. At the last second I added a bunch of blanched broccoli florets. Dish was delicious and beautiful.

Use black peppercorns and cook first then take out or use ground pepper. Fewer hot peppers and put in with chicken Add carrots, celery and other veggies Can do with tofu instead of chickenMade with double chicken plus veggies and doubled marinade and sauce

Use black peppercorns, cook first and remove from oil.

I doubled the sauce and added a chopped sweet red pepper and a stalk of celery. It was good, but my hot pepper was not right (jalapeño), so next time I will add red pepper flakes. I will make again.

Added a head of cauliflower. Tripled the marinade and the sauce but do NOT triple the chilis or peppercorns. Also try removing seeds from chilis as instructed.