A round white porcelain plate is heaped with golden-brown diced chicken, red-brown peanuts, short pieces of dried chili and thick scallion sections in a glossy orange-red sauce, with wooden chopsticks across the rim.
The regional cooking of Sichuan and Chongqing, known for its wide range of flavour types.
Kung Pao chicken is diced chicken stir-fried with dried chilies and peanuts. The Sichuan version has a singed-chili sweet-sour flavor. Legend has it that the name comes from the Gongbao title of the Qing official Ding Baozhen. Sichuan, Guizhou and Shandong each have an account of where the dish began, with a Shandong version called jiangbao jiding and a Guizhou version called hula zi jiding, and no dated text was found, so this entry does not decide between them.
What
Kung Pao chicken is diced chicken stir-fried with dried chilies and peanuts. The Sichuan version has a singed-chili sweet-sour flavor: dried chilies are fried in oil until they smell toasted, and the taste is sweet, sour and hot.1,2
When
Accounts place the dish in the mid-to-late 19th century and tie its name by legend to Ding Baozhen (1820 to 1886); neither is a dated record of the dish, and no dated classical or Republic-era text naming it was found.2
Where
Sichuan, Guizhou and Shandong each have people who say the dish began there, each with its own version: jiangbao jiding in Shandong and hula zi jiding in Guizhou; Beijing also has a variant. An August 15, 2024 report records a local account about Ding Baozhen in Zhaohua, Guangyuan, Sichuan. The recipe in this entry follows the Sichuan version, which does not mean it is judged to be the starting point.1,2,3
How
Thigh meat, or sometimes breast meat, is diced and marinated in soy sauce, wine and starch. Dried chilies and a little Sichuan pepper are fried in oil until fragrant, then scallion, ginger, garlic and the chicken go in, followed by a sauce of sugar, vinegar, soy sauce and starch, and fried peanuts are stirred in at the end.4,5
Why
By legend the name comes from Ding Baozhen's title Gongbao. The sources listed give no reason for why the dish tastes the way it does, and this entry does not guess.1,2
Impact and influence
Versions in Western countries use orange juice and sugar, and variants also exist in Shandong, Guizhou and Beijing. No intangible heritage or time-honored-brand listing was found for the dish.1,2
Legend has it that the Qing official Ding Baozhen liked a dish of diced chicken stir-fried with chilies and often served it to guests. He held the honorary title Gongbao, so people called the dish Ding Gongbao's chicken, and once the name caught on, Kung Pao chicken stuck.
Told in: A popular tale, retold with the words “it is said” in Chinese Wikipedia, while English Wikipedia also traces the name to Ding Baozhen. Both treat it as a legend, and no dated text recording the story was found.
The Zhaohua Renaming Story
Legend has it that after Ding Baozhen died, people in the Zhaohua area, in today's Guangyuan, Sichuan, renamed his favorite peanut and chicken dish Kung Pao chicken in his memory. Some versions add that a cook had once made a dish to thank him. This is a local account with no dated text to back it.
Told in: A local tale, told in a Cover News report of August 15, 2024 about Ding Baozhen and Zhaohua. The report gives the local account, and no dated text was found.
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the simpler way I make it at home, in the Sichuan style: the chicken is marinated before cooking, the dried chilies are fried in oil until fragrant, the sauce is mixed ahead, and the peanuts go in at the end. I can only come close to the heat control and singed-chili flavor of a restaurant kitchen. The amounts and timings below are my own choices at home, informed by two published recipes.
Ingredients
Boneless chicken thigh 300 g, cut into dice of about 1.5 cm
Light soy sauce, for the marinade 15 ml
Cooking wine, for the marinade 15 ml
Cornstarch, for the marinade 1 tablespoon (about 8 g)
Dried chilies 8 (about 8 g), snipped into two or three pieces
Sichuan peppercorns half a teaspoon (about 1 g)
Scallion whites from 2 scallions, cut into short pieces
Ginger 3 slices, chopped
Garlic 2 cloves, sliced
Sugar, for the sauce 20 g
Rice vinegar, for the sauce 30 ml
Light soy sauce, for the sauce 15 ml
Water, for the sauce 30 ml
Cornstarch, for the sauce 1 teaspoon (about 3 g)
Salt a small pinch
Cooked peanuts, roasted or fried 40 g
Cooking oil 30 ml (2 tablespoons)
Steps
Mix the chicken with 15 ml light soy sauce, 15 ml wine and 1 tablespoon cornstarch, and leave it for 10 minutes.
Stir the sugar, vinegar, 15 ml light soy sauce, water, salt and 1 teaspoon cornstarch together in a small bowl and set it by the stove.
Heat the wok, add 15 ml of the oil, and stir-fry the chicken over medium heat until the outside turns white. Take it out, because it goes back in to finish cooking.
Add the remaining 15 ml of oil, turn the heat to medium-low, and fry the dried chilies and peppercorns for about half a minute, until the chilies darken and smell fragrant. Do not let them turn black.
Add the scallion whites, ginger and garlic and fry until fragrant. Return the chicken, turn the heat to high, stir the sauce again and pour it in, then toss for about 2 minutes until the sauce thickens and coats the chicken. Cut open the thickest piece: it is done only when no pink is left inside.
Turn off the heat, stir in the peanuts, and serve at once.
Tips
I add the peanuts last so that they stay crisp; this is my own habit.
Dried chilies burn easily in oil, so at home I always use medium-low heat and move on as soon as they smell fragrant and darken.
