So, my friends know that one of my idiosynchrosies is to use the words “Kungpao Chicken” as a blanket answer for lots of questions. I even have a server named Kungpao (my servers are named after asian foods). My wife says that I say “Kungpao Chicken Optional Pancake” even though I should be be saying “Mushu Pork Optional Pancake”.
Back in my freshman year of college, my friend Jason Engh was taking a karate class, and my friends Rich and Joel came up with this idea that Jason should use chinese foods instead of the typical “Hi-Ya”.
I found the Wanchai Ferry Kung Pao Chicken pre-made kit at the super food town while shopping for groceries. On an impulse, because I have very little impulse control with asian foods, I picked it up to make for dinner one night.
It comes with rice, kungpao sauce, peanuts and peppers, all you add is a teaspoon of vegetable oil (for coating the wok/pan) and a pound of chicken.
Making it was fairly easy, especially for someone like me who sucks at cooking. Put the rice and water into a pan, boil it, simmer for 15 minutes, then let it sit. The chicken was easy, but I messed up one thing; this stuff was FREAKING SPICY.
The package comes with 5 dried peppers. at least 3 of which opened up and dumped all their seeds into the mix. I haven’t had kungpao this spicy since my friend Chris Takasawa’s roommate cooked Kungpao and pork dumplings one night.
Note to self: next time, empty all but one of the peppers of their seeds before placing them in to cook with the chicken.
It was very good, even with the spice, you just need to give it a little time to allow the final product to reduce and thicken a little otherwise you end up with a thin brown sauce that doesn’t really stick to the chicken.