Another Kung Pao Chicken (gluten-free)

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 35 mins Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 3 reasonably sized breasts)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon rice wine (shao hsing wine, rice wine, or dry sherry)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce (gluten-free)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 medium cucumber
• 1 medium red onion
• 5 stalks green onions
• 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce (i recommend homemade hoisin sauce if you have trouble finding gluten-free hoisin sauce at the store)
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce (gluten-free)
• 3 tablespoons rice wine (shao hsing wine, rice wine, or dry sherry)
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar (or honey or sugar)
• 2 tablespoons chicken stock (or a small pinch chicken stock powder plus 2 tablespoons water)
• 2 dried red chili peppers
• 1 tablespoon szechuan peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup roasted peanuts (unsalted or not)
• 1 inch knob ginger
• 3 garlic cloves
• 5 dried red chili peppers
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil

Recipe

• 1 dice chicken into 1-inch pieces. place the chicken cubes, oil, cornstarch, wine, and soy sauce in a bag and give a quick toss before placing in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to marinate.
• 2 while the chicken is marinating, dice bell pepper and cucumber into 1/2-inch squares, dice the red onion, and chop the green onions into 1/2-inch pieces.
• 3 mince the garlic and grate the ginger; set aside.
• 4 in a wok or any suitably large frying pan, dry-roast the dried red peppers and peppercorns until they release their aroma; set aside.
• 5 in a blender or food processor, combine hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, vinegar, oyster sauce, sugar, and chicken stock. toss in the roasted peppercorns and 2 dried peppers and puree until no big chunks of the dried red pepper remain and the peppercorns are pulverized. if you don't have a blender or food processor or if you want to be more thorough, crush the peppers and peppercorns with a mortar and pestle, then just whisk together with the sauce in a small bowl or use the blender anyway.
• 6 in the same pan as before, heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil over high heat (smoking hot really) and dump the contents of the chicken bag into the wok and stir fry until it has just cooked through.
• 7 remove chicken from the pan, leaving the hot oil behind, and set aside. you could also fry the peanuts until they achieve a darker brown hue (especially if you only have unroasted peanuts) but i didn't bother.
• 8 in the same oil, sauté the cucumber, onion, green onion, and red bell pepper for about 4 minutes over high heat; just to remove their rawness while still retaining their crunchiness. if they start to release liquid, stop cooking and drain them right away.
• 9 in the same oil, sauté the ginger and garlic for 30 seconds.
• 10 add contents of the blender (the sauce) and bring to a boil. keep it at a boil until it has reduced to a thick syrup-like consistency.
• 11 return the cooked chicken to the wok and add the peanuts, the remaining 5 dried peppers, and the cooked vegetables and toss to heat the chicken through and coat with sauce.
• 12 transfer to your serving plate and drizzle with sesame oil. serve over a bed of rice.