General Tso’s Chicken Stir-frywith farro
We've made a few small changes to this Chinese take-out-inspired favorite since it was featured in 2019, including increasing its sweet and savory sauce.
Smarts: This is a great recipe for customizing with your favorite vegetables, so feel free to swap in whatever you'd prefer.
Ingredients
- Broccoli - 12 oz, chopped
- Bell peppers, red - 1, diced
- Chicken breasts, boneless and skinless - 1 lb, cubed
- Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp
- Cornstarch - 1 Tbsp
- Water - 2 Tbsp
- Garlic - 3 cloves, chopped
- Ginger (opt) - 2 tsp, grated
- Stock, any type - 1 cup
- Soy sauce, low-sodium - 1/4 cup
- Hoisin sauce - 3 Tbsp
- Brown sugar - 2 Tbsp
- Vinegar, rice - 2 Tbsp
- Red pepper flakes - 1 tsp (more or less, to taste)
- Oil, toasted sesame - 1 tsp
- Farro, semi-pearled / husked and uncooked - 3/4 cup
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Farro - (Skip if made ahead for Monday.) Bring a saucepan of water to boil. Give it a generous sprinkle of salt and add farro. If you bought semi-pearled or husked farro, it should take about 25 minutes to cook until al dente, tender but not soggy. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Broccoli / Bell peppers / Garlic / Ginger - Prep as directed. Combine broccoli and bell peppers in one container. Combine garlic and ginger in another container. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Make sauce - Combine stock, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, Hoisin sauce, sugar, vinegar, red pepper flakes, and toasted sesame oil. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Chicken - Cube chicken. Tenderize with a fork and season with some salt and pepper. (Can be done up to 1 day ahead)
Make
- Heat a wok or skillet with cooking oil over medium heat. Add broccoli and bell peppers and saute until broccoli is starting to soften, 3 to 4 minutes. (If you would like the broccoli very tender, you can add a splash of water and cover the pan with a lid. This steaming step will help broccoli to cook all the way through.)
- Add chicken to vegetables and saute until chicken is nearly cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes more.
- Move chicken and vegetables to the sides of the pan. Give sauce a stir and pour it into the center of the pan. Bring to a simmer.
- Whisk together cornstarch and water. Pour into sauce, stirring to combine.
- When sauce starts to thicken, stir all ingredients together and continue cooking until sauce coats vegetables and chicken.
- If farro was made ahead, reheat in the microwave.
- Serve General Tso’s chicken and vegetables over farro. Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
22 reviews
Good, but my sauce was more liquidy. I added a little more corn starch, but maybe shouldn't have used as much stalk as the recipe called for?
0 HelpfulI looooved this recipe! The flavor of the sauce was fantastic, I like things extra sauced and I was able to easily double the recipe. I would definitely make this again.
0 HelpfulOne of the rare occasions where there's too much sauce. If we make this again I would increase the farro by 1/4 cup and reduce the stock for the sauce by 1/2 cup. Flavors were very good.
0 HelpfulThis made much more sauce than I expected (though I did make less veggies than written). The kids gobbled this one up.
0 Helpful