Kung Pao Chicken

My love for cooking Asian food at home grows and grows with each recipe. For starters, most of my homemade Asian meals have been low-fat. However their takeout counterparts are often VERY high in fat. When you make it at home you control the oil and other fattening ingredients. You can feel good about saving some money and calories by making some takeout classics in the comfort of your own kitchen. Best of all you can wear mismatched pajamas while you cook it and nobody judges you. Not that I do that or anything... ::wink wink::

This recipe has been on my "to try" list for so long. I had all of the ingredients on hand this week so I decided to finally put it on the menu. I am so glad I did because this was delicious. Truly, truly, delicious. I modified the original recipe a bit to add some veggies, but other than that I kept it exactly the same. John gets kung pao chicken everywhere so I knew this meal would be a hit and it certainly was!

If you are interested in some of my other Asian takeout fake-outs, give these a shot:
Baked egg rolls
Spicy shrimp fried rice
Japanese cucumber salad
Orange chicken
Chinese brown sauce
Sweet and sour chicken

Source: Adapted from Pennies on a Platter

Ingredients:

1lb boneless-skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1” pieces)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons sesame oil (I used canola and it was fine)
3 tablespoons green onions (chopped)
3 garlic cloves (minced)
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1/3 cup dry roasted peanuts
1/2 cup chopped peppers (red, green, or both)
1/4 cup chopped mushrooms

Combine chicken and cornstarch in a small bowl and toss to coat. Heat sesame oil in wok (or large deep-dish skillet) over medium heat, add chicken and stir fry 5-7 minutes or until no longer pink inside. Remove chicken from wok.

Add peppers and mushrooms. Heat for about 3-4 minutes.

Add green onions, garlic, red pepper flakes and ginger to the wok and stir fry for 15 seconds.

Combine vinegar, soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl. Mix well and add the sauce to the wok.

Return chicken to the wok and coat with sauce. Stir in roasted peanuts. Heat thoroughly. Top with additional green onions if desired and serve over white rice.