Kung pao chicken (Gōng bǎo jī dīng) from The Woks of Life: Recipes to Know and Love from a Chinese American Family (page 150) by Bill Leung and Kaitlin Leung and Judy Leung and Sarah Leung

Ingredients

Sichuan peppercorns
Dried berries of Xanthoxylum species plants. Although there is a Xanthoxylum fagara, it is native to Florida and Caribbean, and not used in Chinese cuisine. Buy Now
- The Spice House - United States
white pepper
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- The Spice House - United States
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Serves : 4

Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Accompaniments: "Sour spicy" napa cabbage salad (Liángbàn suān là báicài)

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

lisari on May 07, 2025

Absolutely delicious. I subbed mirin for the shaoxing wine, doubled the chicken, garlic & ginger; tripled the sauce.
ksg518 on April 25, 2025

This was fine but if I try it again I'll add some more heat. I used pre-roasted peanuts so skipped that step. I don't see how this is four servings though. It's only 12 ounces of chicken and a cup of peanuts plus the sauce. Even with rice this is really 2-3 servings unless you just want rice with a little bi of sauce and chicken.
SpatulaCity on March 30, 2025

Enjoyable. Definitely increase the sauce ingredients so it’s more saucy! Used only one chili pepper and that was spicy enough for us.
Lsblackburn1 on March 18, 2024

I doubled the marinade and sauce ingredients so it’d be more saucy. It is quite mild - even for a spice wimp like me. Very delicious.
sydlikestocook on February 15, 2024

Delicious! I made with 1.3 lbs of chicken - I should have increased/doubled the sauce ingredients. I thought the peanuts burned rather quickly and I might consider skipping the step to roast them or buy them pre-roasted.
stockholm28 on October 22, 2023

This was good, but it is much less fiery than the Fuchsia Dunlop version which is my ”go to”. It uses half the amount of Szechuan peppercorns and only 2 to 4 dried red chilies (Dunlop’s version uses 10). I wanted more heat. It probably didn’t help that my peppercorns and chillies were purchased in 2021 and have probably lost some of their potency.I liked this, but it was too mild for me and not as complex as the Dunlop version. The ingredients are very similar with a few exceptions (e.g., rice vinegar rather than Chinkiang vinegar).