Kung po chicken

Serves 2-4

2 boneless chicken quarters (legs and thighs), skin removed

About 1 cup roasted salted cashews (you can add more if you like)

1 white onion, sliced

2 - 3 large cloves of garlice, sliced

3-4 stalks spring onion, cut into 3cm pieces

5 thin slices of ginger

10 dried chillies, cut into pieces

3 chili padi, chopped

Cooking oil - enough to fill your frying pan or wok about 1cm of oil. (Peanut oil is best)

Chicken marinade:

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cornflour

a dash of finely ground white pepper

Sauce:

1 tablespoon dark soya sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon Hoisin sauce

1 teaspoon tsao tsing wine

1  tablespoon Chinese black vinegar for cooking (amount may vary depending on the brand of vinegar, I used 1 tablespoon and a little bit)

2 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

100ml water

4 tabespoon oil (peanut, canola or vegetable oil. Don't use olive oil!)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

pinch of ground white pepper

1. Combine ingredients for the sauce. I usually add vinegar last as it tends to get very sour depending on the brand of vinegar. Add the vinegar a little by little and keep tasting. If you add a whole load and it's too sour, you're going to have to start again. 

2. Rinse and pat dry the chicken as much as you can. Cut into bite sized chunks.

3. Marinade the chicken for at least 20 minutes in the salt, cornflour and pepper.

4. Heat the oil in a wok and shallow fry for about 2 -3 minutes. Careful, it might splat. Dish out and drain. Retain some of the oil to fry the other ingredients and discard the rest of the oil.

5. Heat  the reserved oil and saute onion, garlic, ginger, chili padi and dried chilies. Fry for a few minutes then add the cashews.

6. When the onions are slightly soft, pour in the sauce and let it simmer for a minute or two. At this point you can decide on the spiciness. If it's not spicy enough, add more sliced chili padi.

7. Throw the chicken pieces back into the wok with the sauce and simmer till the sauce thickens just a little and chicken is cooked.

8. Turn the heat off and add the spring onions. Serve with rice.

* I think the original kung po chicken uses szechuan peppers but decided to leave that out as it's just too numbing on the tongue. This recipe is very similar to my kung po frog legs.