General Tsao's Chicken

My husband gives this a 10!! I took the advice of several other reviewers and decreased the amount of cornstarch (3 Tbls),sugar (1/2 C), and vinegar (1/8 C) in the sauce, but added 1 tsp of chili flakes instead of the peppers at the end. Also, I cut out the deep frying, as we are trying to cut out the fat in our diets. I just simply stir fried the chicken in a bit of vegetable oil and added the sauce and green onions. We didn't even miss the heavy breading! We served it over steamed rice and had some steamed snow peas to round out the meal. I'll definitely be adding this figure friendly version of our favorite take-out to our regular menu!

I *JUST* finished eating dinner where i made this recipe, and i had to run upstairs to give my rave reviews. It was the best General Tsao's I've ever had; better than any restaurant - and this is my normal entree when i eat Chinese. I would have to add,though, that I modified the recipe slightly. I cut up the chicken and marinated it in 1/2 cup each of soy sauce and hot sauce (Texas Pete) for 4-5 hours. I drained off the liquid before performing the chicken preparation portion of the recipe. I substitued 3-4 Tbsp crushed red pepper for the peppers in the recipe, as the dried peppers are not available in my small town. In the future, I would also probably increase the sauce by another half, just because I'd like the chicken a tiny bit saucier, and this sauce quantity was just enough to glaze the chicken. Otherwise, I have to add this this recipe will now become part of my family's repertoire.

This is a great recipe, but if you want a couple of tweaks that make it much more "restaurant like" as well as little healthier , cut the corn starch in half for the sauce. And drop the MSG. You will create a clearer sauce that won't leave a powdery feel on the upper pallet. The MSG is simply over kill. There is plenty of flavor enhancing going on with the sodium in the soy sauce. Also for a nice decorative touch add a cup of shaved or thin diagonally sliced carrots. Over all this a goooood eats!

Great. Cut down on cornstarch, used less than a 1/4 cup in sauce, and sauteed chicken instead of ddep frying, and used red pepper flakes instead of whole chile peppers. Marvelous!

I have tryed many recipes for the past year trying to perfect this general Tsoas chicken and this is it. It taste just like from the buffet I like to go to.I did use less corn starch in the sauce. Ive made 11 pounds of chicken with this in 5 days and theres none left. I made it 3 times the 2nd and 3rd time i used 2 tablespoons of crushed red pepper instead of chiles and it was better. I will keep this recipe for ever.

If you cut down on the cornstarch in the marinade (2T was more than enough for me), and add some orange zest (about 1 T), I found that this was a delicious recipe. I would probably go a little less on the sugar for my personal taste as well. The other thing I did was delete the MSG with no adverse change in the flavor.

Love the recipe, but definitely had to cut down the cornstarch/add more liquid. I didn't use white wine vinegar, instead I just used regular white vinegar. Turned out great! I tried it twice already and the second one was waaaay better than the first since I know to cut down the cornstarch. And very important, for best results, make the sauce and fry the chicken separately. Pour the sauce over the chicken when it's ready to serve.

The chicken came out great. The sauce was extremely thick and took quite a bit of water to make it the correct consistency. Also found the sauce was much better after adding additional brown sugar and a bit of crushed red pepper. Also added streamed broccoli and green peppers.

We really liked this. Its my favorite food at Chinese places so I was excited to see this! The color wasn't quite right so I added a bit of ketchup to the sauce to make it red but that's only a preference. I think I overdid the cornstarch in the final step so it was seriously gelatinous. My fault! One thing I will change, though, is rather than using cornstarch to batter the chicken, I think I will use flour. I tasted a bit too much starchiness. Otherwise this was awesome!

What a wonderful dish! Just like many of the other reviewers I believe it is quite close to what is available in restaurants, but the cornstarch was a bit much in the sauce. I would say at most 1/4 cup cornstarch would make the recipe magnificent. Until I get a chance to make the dish with the reduced cornstarch, the local chinese restaurant is still tops.

This was good, although it was definitely not generals chicken, so I had to mark down for the disappointment

I live near a chinese restaurant that has been voted the best in my state for several years. It's claim to fame is their General Tsao's chicken. Clearly, this is where they got their recipe! With some of the reviewer's modifications, it tastes identicle to theirs. The recommendations on this site that I used to to achieve this copycat recipe are as follows: I cut the sugar to 2/3 cup. I used only 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and for the liquid, I used all chicken broth For the vinegar, I reduced the amount to 2 tablespoons and used rice wine vinegar. The restaurant stir fries white onion to accompany the chicken (not the green kind) and for some strange reason, it works to catapult this dish into the stratosphere.

I'm really impressed with this recipe. I successfully halved it, and substituted red wine vinegar for white wine vineagar (as I didn't have any WWV), and subbed crushed red peppers and ground chili peppers for the whole chili peppers. I omitted the MSG. The only thing I would do differently next time is cut back on the amount of green onions by about 1/2 or a little more. Also, be warned that throughout the entire process you may be thinking "this is not going well"; it will be ok in the end! :)

Very good recipe Shaun! I did play around with the amounts of the ingredients, but it turned out beautifully nonetheless, not to mention, very authentic tasting. I doubled my sauce, but have no clue on how much cornstarch I added. I just did what looked right. The availability of dried chile peppers certainly varies from state to state and store to store, so you never really know what you're going to get. I only found really large Mexican hot chile peppers, so I used two. I made the sauce and fried my chicken in the morning and threw it all together that evening. Again, you don't know what amount of heat you're getting, so I suggest starting out slowly because you can always add, but not take away. I found the sauce to not be not quite spicey enough, so I just added in some cayenne pepper. Superb and loved by my whole gang. Thanks a heap!

Made this last night and it turned out excellent. I followed advice from reviewers re cornstarch - tripled the recipe, but used 1/2 c. cornstarch. Had a little trouble with the chicken sticking to my fryer, didn't see any comments about this so it must be me. Also, next time I don't think I'll put soy sauce on the chicken/in the breading mixture - didn't care for the background flavor of fried soy. All in all, great recipe. Kids and husband loved it - will definitely make again. Thanks!

Its fairly close. The restauarant I order it from most makes it with a lot more sugar than this one, but over all its really good. You just have to be careful when adding the sauce to the cooked chicken- the sauce cooks suddenly.

I am giving this 5 stars because the taste is some of the best general tsao's chicken we have tried. I followed some of the recommendations of cutting the cornstarch but I still didn't cut it enough. I can't wait to try it again!!

Lots of work, but it was worth it.

Rated as a 2 based on the recipe as written. There is no way to achieve the sauce properly unless you modify it. Instead of how the recipe is written, change to the following - for the sauce- 1.5 c. hot chicken broth, 1/2 c. soy sauce, 1/4 c. white vinegar, 1/4 c. white cooking wine. I also eliminated the MSG. For the chicken, decrease the soy sauce to 1/4 c. That will solve the problem of the chicken tasting like fried soy. If you follow other peoples suggestions on decreasing the amount of cornstarch in the sauce (which you would have to do to prepare this so it isn't a glob!!) you will not have enough sauce to cover your chicken well. For the chicken, I put the cornstarch in a ziplock bag and then introduced the chicken, which made it simple to coat and eliminated the need for the extra oil. With these changes, I found this recipe to be out of this world!

I actually made this a healthy dish. I left off the chicken batter, I didn't fry the chicken and just soaked it in ginger and soy sauce and then sauteed it with the onion and peppers before adding the sauce. The recipe called for a bit too much cornstarch. I only used about a tablespoon. The first time it came out like glue. My suggestion: add the cornstarch a little at a time while it cooks. Also, use the small dried Japanese red peppers. They are SUPER-hot! WARNING: Only use about 3 chopped up in the recipe. Overall, a definate keeper!!

This is the best stuff!!! I didn't have the peppers so I used Red Pepper Flakes (which also allowed me to make my husbands spicier than the rest of the kids) It was also really easy. It tasted just like the stuff you get from the restaurants - which is really good since we live in Germany!! Great Recipe!

I was a bit hesitant about making this recipe because of all the mixed reviews, but I decided to try it anyway. SO WORTH IT! Using the advice from other reviews I made the following changes: 1. I marinated the chicken for a couple hours in an asian toasted sesame marinade with a little bit of chili garlic sauce. 2. I doubled the sauce, but only used 1/4 cup of cornstarch 3. To make things a bit healthier, I sauteed the chicken in a little bit of oil rather than frying it. 4. I cooked the chicken and the sauce seperately and when they were both done I poured the sauce over the chicken and let it simmer for a couple of minutes. The recipe turned out really good, and everyone gobbled it down. Defintely making it again!

Great recipe, LOVED IT! I did as others suggested and halfed the cornstarch in the recipe. Also, next time so it's a bit crispier I plan to flour the chicken before putting it into the batter and make double the amount of sauce! I served it with a red bell pepper and it was delicious! :) I definitely recommend this recipe! *** update, i floured the chicken before putting it into th ebatter and it made it a lot crispier (SO GOOD!)******

OK, but nothing like any General Tsao's chicken we've ever had anywhere else. Very bland in comparison. It's my son's favorite dish, and the leftovers went bad after languishing in the fridge for over a week. Since he's a big eater and loves to scarf up just about any leftovers, this said a lot. He sheepishly told me to just pitch it, that he wasn't interested in eating it. This was definitely not worth the mess to go through the deep fat frying. Considering the cost of the ingredients (especially the large amount of oil) it was a big disappointment. Sorry to say my advice on this one is to head to your nearest Chinese take-out and save yourself the time and mess of cleanup.

Great recipe! I made a few modifications. I doubled the sauce and cooked in pot however only used 2 tsp ginger and 3 Tbsp cornstarch. I also used regular vinegar and no MSG. I didn't coat the chicken but pan fried in canola oil. Everyone loved it!

I made this recipe for the first time a couple of years ago and it has been a favorite ever since. While it's not exactly like the General Chicken I get at my local chinese restaurant, it is equally as good if not better. I cannot imagine anyone not liking this. It's really not difficult to make at all - just a little extra time to fry up the chicken. As for ingredients, I've always cut the corn starch in half, omitted the msg, reduced the amt of chicken, and used 1 tsp crushed red pepper in place of the dried peppers. Perfect every time!!

this was great, although i did decrease the cornstarch and add more chicken broth. one thing to note, the longer you saute the dried chili peppers the spicier it gets!

Since I'm a vegetarian I prepared just the sauce, using 1/2 the amount of cornstarch as suggested by other reviewers. I served it over extra firm tofu coated in cornstarch and fried. Absolutely delicious! I've made it 3 times in the past couple weeks. Even better than my local Chinese restaurant's General Tso's tofu. Thanks for the recipe.

I didn't follow this recipe exactly but I am still giving it a 5. I did not use the ginger (we hate the flavor) or the MSG (I refuse to buy that) but that is just personal preference. The chicken was to die for and I am already thinking up other ways that I can use this. I did it in my Fry Daddy and I couldn't ask for more perfect results. The sauce was great but the chicken was good enough to stand on its own without any sauce. Again, I am so impressed with the chicken preperation/results that it is difficult for me to rate the overall recipe. This was excellent and we both really enjoyed it. I plan on playing around with the chicken preparation with other meats and I look forward to my experiments!

General Tsao's chicken is one of hubby's favorite dishes but we can't find it in Tokyo. I'm glad I found this recipe because it is as it is in restaurants. I did cut down on the corn starch but found that the chicken is not crispy enough inside. What I'll do next time is to marinade the chicken in everything except for the corn starch, and then coat the chicken in corn starch before frying.

Rating as 3 stars right now. It's decent but not what I was hoping it would be. The batter for the chicken was a little odd and got soggy really fast. Everyone suggested reducing the amount of cornstarch in the sauce and I did but I found it to be too thin. Huh? I'm a little confused. I am making this in 2 batches. The first was a practice run before my hubby gets home tonight. I might try to experiment with a different batter and not diluting the sauce. Will update. ***UPDATE*** Ok, I made this for my hubby when he got home and I made several changes and it was divine. 1. I changed the batter to a basic one, milk and egg dipped in flour. 2. I cut the vinegar in half and reduced the ginger to just 1 tsp. 3. Also in the sauce I added about 1/2-3/4 c water. 4. I cooked the sauce completely before putting the chicken in. I noticed the first time that it was completely soggy by the time the sauce thickened. Now I just fry the chicken and heat the sauce at the same time. By the time the chicken is cooked the sauce is too. Turn off the heat and quickly coat the chicken and serve. Fabulous. Giving 4 stars bc of all of the changes.

Me and my fiance love this recipe! He has asked me to make it 3 times this month! I do believe it is important to weigh the chicken to make sure you have exactly the correct amount otherwise it changes the taste and texture.

EWW!!! My husband made this and followed the recipe exactly. It was awful. I ended up grilling hotdogs instead that night. It was quite late because it took forever to make. This tasted absolutely nothing like real Chinese.

I followed the suggestions of other reviewers and replaced the 1/2 cup of cornstarch with 3 Tbsp and the 1 cup of cornstarch with 1/2 cup and I can't imagine how this recipe would have turned out had I used the amounts listed...it would have been terrible. I also omitted the MSG because I don't cook with it and in the end, we didn't notice that it was gone. The only other change I made was that I used about 1 Tbsp of dried chili flakes instead of whole chili's and it worked out just fine. 1 Tbsp makes this a VERY fiery dish....a little too fiery for my taste, so next time I make it (and there definitely will be a next time), I will reduce the amount of chili flakes to 1/2 Tbsp. This is a really great dish...pretty close to our local take-out place. Thanks for the great recipe Shaun!

In the words of Rachael Ray, YUM-O! Per other reviewers, I made the following changes: doubled the sauce, using only 3T of cornstarch, and that was a little too much; used only 1/4 c white wine vinegar when doubling the recipe calls for 1/2 cup; omitted the MSG for health concerns; used only 1/2 cup of cornstarch for the chicken; used 1/2T of crushed red pepper flakes. My husband who does not like ANY spice, said this made it waaaay tooooo spicy, so next time I'll use less or just omit it. The recipe probably didn't need it anyway; it was so packed with flavor. Also, I didn't add any oil to help separate the chicken as stated in step 2; after all the work I'd done, I just flat out didn't feel like it LOL! I agree with another reviewer that it probably didn't NEED to be deep fried (as I did); it would cut A LOT of work, not to mention fat and calories by omitting the deep frying. I served this with Beef Egg Rolls (submitted by Trisha Caudill, this site) and House Fried Rice (submitted by Lynda, this site). All in all, this recipe was wonderfully tasty and better than the last serving I had at a restaurant because I KNOW what ingredients are going in to it. Thanks so much Shaun!

Very tasty recipe. I served it on rice and it was delicious, probably wouldn't recommended eating it straight-up, the garlic and ginger would get to you. My tip for this recipe is to be sure to VERY finely chop the garlic and ginger since large pieces can overpower the taste. All in all, a GREAT recipe! I can't imagine anyone not liking this, unless they were adamently for bland foods!

This dish was really good, but ONLY with a few important alterations. First of all, no more than 1/4 cup cornstarch in the sauce (you could probably use less). I halved the amount of chicken but still made the full amount of sauce. This was still barely enough sauce. I breaded the chicken in a more traditional way. I marinated it in the soy sauce/egg mixture, then dropped it in a bag of flour to coat it. I also used crushed red pepper flakes instead of the chile peppers and eliminated the MSG. I will certainley make this recipe again though.

Oh so good!! Very labor-intensive, but worth it. Definitely 1/2 the cornstarch whenever it calls for it. Instead of deep frying, I just cooked in a very hot pan, constantly stirring. The texture was a little different from traditional recipes, but we liked it (not a fan of deep frying if we can pan-fry instead) I also halved the oil in the chicken mixture and turned out fine. Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe!

Very yummy, but still not crispy enough :(. I used 3 T cornstarchfor the sauce and it was still too much. will try 2 T next time, and maybe some orange zest I think would go really well.

The sauce was really thick and the cornstarch 'flaked' off the chicken.

Just a word of caution: I do NOT recommend the use of MSG in anything. There have been terrible health issues from it. But the recipe was great otherwise. I reduced the starch and increased the liquid. Marinated the chicken in it over night then drained the marinade (sauce) off, baked it and added the sauce back in during last 15 minutes of baking. Trying to cut down on fried food. This turned out great. BUT NO MSG. My mom nearly died from it. And I know others who have strange and horrible reactions from it. Just a warning.

This recipe was to sweet!! To starchy!! Awful!! Next time I will order out!!

THE CHICKEN WAS GREAT, BUT THE SAUCE IS JUST TOO MUCH! GOEY CONSISTENCY... NOT WHAT WE WERE LOOKING FOR..

I was a little nervous to try this after reading the negative reviews. Don't make that mistake, I wish I would have made it sooner. It was super yummy. I took the advice of using 1/4 cup of cornstarch in the sauce and I used red chili flakes instead of chili's. Very tasty. If you cook a lot you won't find it difficult OR messy!

I tried this one last night and this really worked well. Like most other reviewers, I scaled way back on the cornstarch and I breaded the chicken with flour instead of cornstarch. In addition, I microplaned some orange zest into the sauce mixture for a little extra flavor. I served it with the "Fried Rice Restaurant Style" (also in Allrecipes) and we had a great meal!

Followed the exact recipe to a T, except that I only had 1 1/2 lbs of chicken.. made enough for 4... was absolutely delicious! Just like in the restaurant. We call this General Tao in Montreal. I can't get over how much it tasted like take out...

Tasted like we were at a restaurant. I broke my tasteless dinner streak with this recipe. Was easy - prepared everything early afternoon and just popped it into wok at dinner time and was done! So tasty I was giddy - we almost danced around the kitchen at my success! Didn't use MSG, and reduced cornstarch as suggested by others. A great way to reinspire me to keep trying - this one goes to the front of the recipe book!

This recipe was very good, my family devoured it and were begging from each other for more. 2 important things about this recipe, that I learned from the reviews are: 1. adding the cornstarch to the chicken is fine, but the cornstarch in the sauce mixture, you have to cut in half. 2. Cut down on the soy sauce and sugar. I also didn't have any chili peppers so I added chile in the jar, turned ourt great.

This was just awesome. I've been looking for a recipe, as this is my favorite dish when eating out. I recently found a packet mix for the sauce, and was sorely disappointed. It was extremely salty and had an almost burnt flavor. This recipe is perfect. I took the advice of the other reviewers and cut the sauce corn starch in half, and had to substitute ground ginger for fresh. I also did not have any sherry, but the sauce came out perfect. I added some crushed red pepper to taste and I thought it was perfect. The initial sight of the chicken and even the end result worried me. It was so dark, compared to the light tempura batter look I see at restaurants. However, once covered in the sauce, it complimented perfectly and the overall flavor was perfect. Thank you!

I'm a little puzzled by the negative reviews. This is an excellent dish! I can never make enough, it seems. I can only suggest that those who didn't care for it may have inadvertantly strayed from the original recipe. I,too, cut the cornstarch as advised and added a bit more garlic. I'm making this dish at this very moment!

I was searching for a General Tso's chicken recipe to make at home. I came across this one, and it seemed to have good reviews, so I thought "ok, this will work". I get the ingredients, am prepared for the about 2 hours time to properly make (not including clean up). I followed the recipe EXACTLY, and it was AWFUL. I don't know how anyone can like this recipe. It tasted nothing like general tso's at the chinese restaurant's here, and totally ruined my night. I will never be making this one again, and maybe someday i'll try someone else's. Until then, I'll just buy it.

I did not care for this. Too much sugar in the recipe. It made a brown, thick, sticky goo that was no where near GenTso chicken! This made a roux that might be okay over lots and lots of steamed vegetables, but if you have your heart set on G/T chicken, better find another recipe.

Was just a little salty for my taste. Next time I'll use a bit less soy sauce. Fantastic recipe. This is a keeper!

Firstly, I took the tip to reduce cornstarch as the general consensus recommends, great advice! However, I took another tip and marinated the chicken in soy sauce for several hours--won't be doing this again, it was too salty for my taste. With that said, this is a good recipe, which needs some tweaking. I plan to alter this a tad next time: 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 2 tablespoons Oyster Sauce for the sauce Will reduce the 1/2 cup soy sauce to 1/4 cup plus 1/4 cup chicken broth when combining with chicken. Lastly, I recommend using the sundried chili peppers and stir fry as directed. This lends the sauce a wonderful smoky taste & color.

Great recipe, I had been looking for one and now I've found it! Rebecca

The whole family loved it. I think the hardest part of this recipe was cooking all the chicken.......(I have smaller kids and had to cut smaller pieces) but the final result was nice...I had to cook to the kids's taste buds I prefer mine spicy . Maybe next time I will add some hoisin sauce, But will definately make it again. Thanks sonya

Excellent home version of one of my favorite restaurant meals. Last time I skipped the batter and deep frying, and just stirfried the chicken. It still turned out well.

Been looking for a recipe for general tsao and I was NOT disappointed. I also used 2 TBS cornstarch in the sauce and used white vinegar instead of white wine vinegar. I also omitted the MSG and used plain black pepper as well as crushed red pepper. I did use fresh minced ginger and fresh minced garlic but didnt use onions at all. WOW what a dish. We are avid eaters of Chinese food and EVERYONE raved about it. If you find this recipe unsatisfactory... YOU must have done something wrong. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Could not be happier with this recipe. Hubby and I gave up on ordering General's Chicken at our local Chinese restaurant because it was mainly breading and some pieces were so gristly you couldn't even chew them. Looked up this recipe and gave it a try. It was wonderful. Like many reviewers, I used only 3 tbsp of cornstarch, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/8 cup vinegar and 1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes for the sauce. It turned out perfect.

When I go to the mall, this is the number one item I see kids ordering from the Chinese place. I too, order it whenever possible. This recipe is the only one I've ever found that doesn't take unavailable ingredients or pans, and that tastes as good as, if not better than, what we get at a restaurant. The trick is to wait for the cornstarch to gel up, and not add any in panic! :)

I followed others' advice to go a little light on the corn starch, double the sauce and use crushed red pepper instead of chilis -- and it was fantastic!!! Definitely a big winner. I would advise using no more than 1 TBSP of the peppers though, the heat adds up quickly (and I like it hot).

just like take out :)

Decent enough meal, but just didn't taste like the General Tso's I'm used to.

This recipe was excellent with some of the modifications from other reviewers. I cut the cornstarch to 2 tablespoons in the sauce, and I put half cornstarch/half flour in a plastic bag and put a few pieces of the marinated chicken in at a time to coat. Also used one tablespoon of crushed red peppers in place of the chili peppers. Tasted just like a good Chinese restaurant's General Tsao's! Family loved it and will definitely make again!

I'm sorry but I have to give this recipe 2 stars.All you can taste is cornstarch. My 2 children got all excited when I handed them their plates until they tasted it. My children are very good eaters and they strongly disliked this.I will not be making this again.

Decreased cornstarch to 1/4 c, decreased sugar to 1/2 c, added slightly less than 1/4 c of vinegar. Dipped chicken in egg and soy, then shook in bag with 1/2 c cornstarch and 1/2 c flour (got rid of a lot of the overall starchy taste). Added thin, diagonally sliced carrots to veg, added water/cornstarch to thicken sauce and water to thin. Poured sauce over chicken just before serving. Awesome with revisions.

The flavors are spot on, however DO NOT use that much corn starch. The results are comical, yes, but not edible.

almost like the real thing...a lot of work...

This recipe called for so much cornstarch that even cut in half it made a jelly like sauce consistency. I had to add so much extra broth just to get this clumpy mixture to mix in the pan. I'll keep looking but will not make this one again.

i just love it !!!!!!!

This is excellent! I didn't use the MSG. It's unnecessary and incredibly unhealthy. Also, I used honey instead of white sugar, which gave the sauce a really great flavor. I'm definitely making this again!

I never thought I would be making homemade General Tsao's Chicken, but this was really good. My husband and I order General Tsao's Chicken often at Chinese restaurants, but it was nice to be able to make this at home. The family loved it.

This REcipe is NASTY i was totally disappointed in this i was expecting a similar taste to the Chinese Restaurants Generals chicken and got something totally different I would NOT recommend this to anyone

YUMMY ! Even my teenage sons who don`t care for Chinese love this ! Cut way back on the cornstarch or you`ll wind up with paste. :P

Hi,, well the chicken was excellent,, but i did have troubles with the sauce, i did all that was post, (apparently well) but my sauce tasted like oxidized metal :(.. i wonder if anyone of you could help me with that??? Thanks

We loved this! The only thing we found that needs to be adjusted is the amount of corn starch used. We used less and still will have to do a little less the next time. Yum!

This is a great recipe! In the interest of time I used popcorn chicken instead of marinating and frying my own. Also in the interest of time I used 1 t crushed red chilis instead of the 16 sun dried chilie peppers the recipe called for. Next time I will start with 1/2 t , it had plenty of heat and was just a GREAT recipe. The chopped green onions also give it a pretty presentation

This was good but breading all the chicken was a pain. Made this for the boyfriend since it is his favorite Chinese food, it wasn't like the restaurant's but he enjoyed it anyways.

This is a really tasty recipe. I followed the suggestions to cut down on the cornstarch, and the texture and consistency of the chicken was wonderful. I have to admit that I was skeptical at first because the chicken looks like a big glob of goo before it's fried! The sauce was rather thick at first, but it's easy to get to your desired consistency by adding water or pineapple juice, etc. I'm watching my sugar intake, so I substituted the white sugar for splenda, and nobody could tell! The one thing I'll change the next time I make it is to cut way back on the amount of soy sauce that the chicken is mixed with... the chicken was too salty for my tastes. This recipe is definitely a keeper and will be pulled out on comfort food nights!

I was so excited when I found this recipe. I love General Tsao's chicken but we can't get it where we live. Everything was going great until I mixed the chicken and the sauce. All the batter on the chicken turned to goo and had a horrible texture. Next time I will cook the sauce by its self and then add it to the chicken. Also the sauce wasn't spicy enough for our tastes. Thanks for posting this recipe.

Recipe is pretty good, but folks are right on the money about it being too much cornstarch. I suspected that the amounts for cornstarch and water were reversed. So, I used 1/2 c. water and only 1/4 c. cornstarch. Turned out perfect. Will make again.

THIS RECIPE IS MARVELOUS!!!!!!!!!!!! this is a new favorite in my home. i made this recipe for my husband and brother in law, who both love general tsaos chicken, and they could not believe how close to the real thing it was. i agree with the others to leave out msg and cut starch to 1/4 cup for sauce. the only thing i might recommend is cutting the amount of chicken used in half, or doubling the sauce mixture. i dont think the sauce was too thick, it just had to cover alot of chicken. also, you dont need 16 dried chile peppers, a few will do just fine and provide the perfect amount of flavor. anyways, it was delicous! thank you!

I prefer this sauce sweeter and more tangy, so I'll add more sugar and vinegar next time. This recipe is a good starting point, though. The directions were very easy to follow.

I cook almost daily for my picky husband, but he didn't think homemade General Tsao's was possible. I prooved him wrong with this recipe! I did cut the corn starch as noted in the sauce, but used the recipe amount for the chicken chunks. Don't worry if the chicken is kinda glue like before frying, it will come out crispy and taste awesome!

This is a good recipe, but there are definitely a couple things I changed. For example, like many mentioned, there is way too much cornstarch in the sauce itself. It becomes so thick it's like a goo. I would halve it and go from there. The flavor is excellent!! Also, I omit the MSG. Is that really needed? I use chicken breast instead of thighs, which is just a personal preference. One last thing - when stir frying the green onion and dried pepper in the wok, I add a splash of cooking sherry. It is so good! If not for the tweaks I had to make I would have rated it 5 stars. But not quite perfect on its own.

Very good recipe. I didn't have any chile peppers, so I used crushed red peppers. I also used only 1/4 cup cornstarch for the sauce, and it came out perfect.

I made this recipe for my best friend because she loves hot food and she was very impressed. The only thing with this recipe is I had to use a whole can of chicken broth and I kept adding water to it like a whole cup & a 1/2. But it was a very good recipe thank you!

This was very good, my husband liked it more then me, I thought it was alittle chalky tasting, but my husband didn't think it was. Thanks for the recipe.

This is a great recipe I'll make over and over again. After reading other reviews I cut back the cornstartch for the sauce by half. For the chicken I used half the amount of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of flour. It was so good!

OMG! THIS RECIPE IS SUPERB WITH A FEW MINOR MODIFICATIONS. I TOOK THE ADVICE OF OTHER REVIEWERS AND USED LESS CORNSTARCH. 2TBSPS TO BE EXACT AND ADDED EXTRA IF NEEDED. I CHOSE TO LIGHTLY FLOUR MY CHICKEN BREAST PIECES INSTEAD OF USING CORN STARCH AND I SEASONED THEM A BIT AS WELL MINUS THE SOY MARINADE.I RESERVED THE SOY USASAGE FOR THE SAUCE. I USED 1/4 CP WHITE SUGAR AND 1/4 CUP BROWN SUGAR INSTEAD OF A CP OF WHITE WHICH GAVE THE SAUCE A RICHER CONSISTENCY.I USED WHITE VINEGAR AND CRUSHED RED PEPPER FLAKES IN PLACE OF THE CHILLIES. MY FAM RAVED OVER THIS RECIPE. NOT TO TOOT MY OWN HORN BUT THEY EVERYONE USUALLY LOVE S MY COOKING LOL. THIS PUT AN EXTRA NOTCH ON MY COOKING BELT! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS RECIPE. I WILL BE USING IT AGAIN! IF POSSIBLE CHECK OUT MY PLATE OF GEN. TSO ON MY PROFILE!

We enjoyed this recipe. I did take a shortcut and use frozen chicken strips. The chile amount can be VERY variable depending on the type of chile availible. In a pinch I would use red pepper flake.

With other reviewers comments noted, a great recipe. I ALWAYS omit MSG in any recipe, because it causes some people unmentionable (on a cooking site) medical problems. MSG also increases sodium content a lot, as well.

This is a good recipe to build from but it definitely uses too much cornstarch and too much sugar and vinegar. I also think I would use chicken thigh meat instead of breast and I would also skip the deep frying part of it too. I would just stir-fry without having coated with egg and cornstarch mixture. The sauce has a really good overall flavor and that is what really gets it the four stars. I also think that the addition of celery and nuts would be nice.

Excellent flavor - just like the take-out place down the road. Would give this 5 stars except that the sauce is just too thick. Shame on me for not reading these reviews before I made it. Will make this again very soon to try it out with less starch. I didn't add the chiles and it was still great.

I should have read the reviews before making this dish! 1/2 cup of cornstarch is just way too much! Common sense took over, so I only added a little bit over a quarter cup. The end result still turned out a bit jelly like especially after it cooled. Instead of adding 3/4 cup of sugar I only added 1/4 cup and added 2 Tbs. of ketchup. I misread the ingredient for the white wine vinegar, which I thought was white wine and substituted 1/4 of sherry. When I realized my mistake I added 2 Tbs of vinegar. Also for the chile peppers I use red pepper flakes (2 Tbs. We like it hot.) Overall I think the taste was similar, but definitely use less cornstarch for the sauce. I also didn't fry my chicken. I just added 1-2 Tbs of cornstarch to the chicken (so it'd soak up some of the water/chicken juice from the chicken) then browned on both sides, added the green onions, then added the sauce.

I give this recipe a 2 stars(a D grade for this major mistake) due to the fact you DON'T need monosodium glutamate (MSG) to make food tastier or better. Besides MSG causes health problems with many, and in my opinion, this neurotoxin will cause health problems even slightly in the longrun. Hey this is asian style cooking, and with all of the wonderful herbs, spices, and salt(or no salt), how can you not enjoy such foods without such things as sodium inosinate, sodium guanylate, manmade sweetner substitutes(there are some natural ones for those concerned...do the research), and MSG? Here's 1 of many leads http://www.msgtruth.org/

This was an excelent recipe. I had to cut the corn starch to 1/4c. for the sauce. I will be making this a lot.

General tso's chicken at the chinese restaurant has a crispy batter slight crisp to it that keeps the sauce on the outside of the chicken without absorbing into the batter. The problem with this recipe and ones like it, is that the chicken becomes soggy after you add the sauce. If we can solve the soggy batter problem then this recipe would be restaurant quality.

I also skipped the breading part.