Sichuan, China
Kung Pao Chicken
Sichuan stir-fry of cubed chicken, dried chiles, Sichuan pepper, peanuts — mala balanced, dark-vinegar sauced.
In repertoire since Oct 2025
Two different dishes share the name.
The Sichuan original is dry, mala (numbing-spicy), and emphasises the smoke of dried chiles and the floral numbing of Sichuan peppercorns. The international takeout version is sweet, sticky, orange-glazed, and bears almost no resemblance. Both are commonly called *kung pao chicken*, and the divergence is one of the more telling examples of how Chinese cuisine got translated abroad.
2 · Plant
Then, the plants.
Each ingredient held water and minerals, built sugar out of light over weeks or months, ripened, and was picked. A few ingredients (salt, water) came from a different elemental story.
- Ingredient
Chicken thigh
400 g boneless skinless chicken thigh, cut into 2 cm cubes
Thigh, not breast — stays juicy through the high-heat stir-fry. Western versions use breast and the chicken goes dry.
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Shaoxing wine
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine (for the marinade)
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Cornstarch
1 tbsp cornstarch (for marinade) + 1 tsp (for the sauce slurry)
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Dried red chiles
10 dried red chiles (Tianjin or chiles de árbol), broken in half
The smoke and warmth, not the heat — Sichuan dried chiles are intensely fragrant rather than scorching.
Mexican dried-chile farm - Ingredient
Sichuan peppercorns
1.5 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, lightly toasted
Whole, not ground. They fry in the oil with the dried chiles and donate their numbing flavour to the dish.
Hanyuan Sichuan peppercorn farm - Ingredient
Ginger
Thumb of ginger, sliced into 5 mm coins
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Scallions
4 scallions, white parts only, cut into 2 cm lengths (greens reserved for garnish)
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Roasted peanuts
100 g roasted unsalted peanuts
Toasted dry in a pan, not honey-roasted. They should stay crunchy in the sauce.
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Chinkiang black vinegar
1.5 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
The Sichuan answer to balsamic. Don't substitute white vinegar — completely different profile.
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Dark soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Sugar
2 tsp sugar
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Chicken stock
60 ml chicken stock or water
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Toasted sesame oil
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Origin not yet authored
- Ingredient
Neutral oil
3 tbsp neutral oil
Origin not yet authored
3 · Cook
Then, the kitchen.
Heat, time, salt, fat, acid — the recipe that turns the ingredients into something more than their sum.
4 · Plate
Sichuan, China
Kung Pao Chicken
Sichuan stir-fry of cubed chicken, dried chiles, Sichuan pepper, peanuts — mala balanced, dark-vinegar sauced.
The single most internationally-recognised Sichuan dish, and the one most often distorted by adaptation. Outside China the dish has been bastardised heavily — most Western takeout versions add ketchup, drop the Sichuan peppercorns, and turn up the sweetness — but the original is a tight stir-fry in the mala school, alongside mapo tofu and dan dan mian.
What makes it travel: the peanuts. The sweet-savoury contrast with chili heat is universally legible, and the peanut crunch survives the journey from wok to plate to mouth.
Eat around the chiles.
The dried chiles and whole Sichuan peppercorns are aromatics that flavoured the oil; they're not meant to be eaten whole. Push them to the side of the plate.