Kung Pao Chicken with Roasted Chickpeas
The most popular dish in a Chinese takeout menu is Kung Pao Chicken. It is a Szechuan dish named after a governor of China's Szechuan province. Also known as Gong Bao or Kung Po, it is a very quick and easy dish to make. Usually made with chicken, peanuts and chilies, it is a combination for sweet, salt, spicy and sour.
Here, this all time favorite gets a make over to a healthy homemade allergy friendly Kung Pao Chicken with Roasted Chickpeas. I air fried the chicken instead of stir frying, just because frying makes everything that much more tasty and air frying makes it healthier than deep frying.
To give it an allergy friendly twist:
- Lemon juice is substituted for the vinegar.
- Roasted chickpeas are used to replace the peanuts. The chickpeas give a hint of nutty taste and crunch, like the peanuts. I am going to call this dish, Kung Pea Chicken, get it? 😉
With these substitutions the dish becomes nut free and vinegar free. It does not have a lot of sauce but a cup of stock can be added to make more sauce. I serve it over a bed of fried rice, get my secret recipe for restaurant style fried rice here.
- 50 mins
- Serves: 4
- Easy
Ingredients
Marination
| |
| 1 lb chicken boneless cubes | |
| 1 tablespoon soy sauce | |
| 1 tablespoon corn flour | |
Sauce
| |
| 10 button red chilies | |
| 1 tablespoon ginger julienne | |
| 1 tablespoon crushed garlic | |
| 2 tablespoons soy sauce | |
| 1 tablespoon lemon juice | |
| 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper | |
| 1 tablespoon pasta sauce | |
| 2 tablespoons oil | |
Garnish
| |
| 3 green onion, chopped | |
| 3 tablespoons roasted chickpeas |
Steps
1
Done
10 mins
|
|
2
Done
35 mins
|
|
3
Done
1 min
|
|
4
Done
1 min
|
|
5
Done
1 min
|
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Cook Notes
- Peanut Substitution: Recipe for Roasted Chickpeas.
- For rice use my secret recipe for Restaurant Style Fried Rice.
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I love Kung Pao chicken and would definitely love to try out this healthier version on my family. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteIt is a must try.
DeleteThis looks so yummy - and a great allergy-friendly variation of a classic!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to use the chickpeas instead of peanuts. The dish looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteoooo Kung Pao chicken with chickpeas! What a great idea cause I absolutely love chickpeas and such a good way to replace nuts in the recipe!
ReplyDelete