Hunan Chicken is one of the famous Hunan cuisines with a strong local flavor. It is tender and delicious.
What is Hunan Chicken?
Hunan chicken is a healthy Chinese chicken recipe. It was founded in the Tongzhi Period of the Qing Dynasty and was invented by the Yuloudong Restaurant, a century-old shop in Changsha, Hunan province, China. It incorporates the Hunan sauce, chili, and lots of vegetables which makes it, well, distinctively Asian.
Tips for making Hunan Chicken
Freeze the chicken for around 50 minutes so that you can cut the chicken very thin and easy.
And it is known for its quick frying and crispness. To make the chicken taste better, you need to add a lot of oil and make it under the high fire. Only such a stir can keep the chicken tender. It has a distinctive sweet and spicy taste.
Hunan Sauce: A combination of cornstarch, sugar, red chili pepper, oyster sauce, soy sauce, chicken stock, and rice wine vinegar.
Hunan chicken vs Szechuan chicken
1. Hunan chicken is spicy. It is a stir-fried dish that is just coated in a dusting of cornstarch with a mixture of vegetables.
Szechuan chicken is sweet, spicy and sour. It is generally battered and fried before being added to a pan of stir-fried vegetables. And it coated in a much sweeter sauce than Hunan chicken.
2. Hunan chicken uses fresh ingredients. The fresh ingredients used for its preparation change with the seasons.
Szechuan chicken relies dried, pickled and salt-cured on ingredients. It is never littered with the seasons.
3. Hunan chicken it contains lots of vegetables and assumes a crunchy texture.
Szechuan has a few vegetables and it contains sesame seeds, cashew nuts, and peanuts, which result in a little bit of crunchiness.
How to make Hunan Chicken
Easy Hunan Chicken Recipe:
INGREDIENTS
• 1/2 chicken
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon ginger, minced
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Hunan Sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 5 red chili pepper, minced
• 3 drained chili pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons chicken stock
• 1/2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns, black seeds removed then ground(option)
• 1 anise(option)
• 1/3 cinnamon(option)
• 1 fragrant leaf (option)
• 1 teaspoon cumin (option)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. In a bowl, combine cornstarch, light soy sauce, salt, pepper, ginger, garlic, and chicken pieces and marinate for 15 minutes. Mix all the Hunan Sauce ingredients in another bowl.
2. Heat oil in a pan until it’s close to smoking. Add chicken and stir-fry until both sides become golden.
3. Add the Hunan sauce in the pan. Cook it for 1 minute.
4. Pour 1 cup of water and cook until the sauce has thickened. Transfer on a plate. Serve.
Hunan Chicken
Ingredients
- 1/2 chicken
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon ginger minced
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Hunan Sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 5 red chili pepper minced
- 3 drained chili pepper
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons chicken stock
- 1/2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns black seeds removed then ground(option)
- 1 anise option
- 1/3 cinnamon option
- 1 fragrant leaf option
- 1 teaspoon cumin option
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine cornstarch, light soy sauce, salt, pepper, ginger, garlic, and chicken pieces and marinate for 15 minutes. Mix all the Hunan Sauce ingredients in another bowl.
- Heat oil in a pan until it’s close to smoking. Add chicken and stir-fry until both sides become golden.
- Add the Hunan sauce in the pan. Cook it for 1 minute.
- Pour 1 cup of water and cook until the sauce has thickened. Transfer on a plate. Serve.
I’m so glad that I stumbled across this delicious recipe! My husband and I really enjoyed it. I’ll definitely be making it again. This recipe’s a keeper!
Doubled up on the marinade. After draining from the meat I added some water and boiled to have a saucier dish.
This does seem very quick and delicious! A super idea for a weeknight meal instead of ordering in!
This recipe is so simple, yet so delicious. I’ve made it three times in the last two weeks!
Delicious! Thank you so much. It took longer at the step to fry the chicken for me and much flipping over and over to get it all nice and toasty but worth it.
Really good. I’m saving this one.
This is incredibly good. I thought a large amount of chili pepper would overwhelm the dish, but it was a perfect, heady compliment to the Chicken.
I made these Hunan chicken today for lunch, and they were wonderful – so easy to make.
I don’t have Sichuan peppercorns…anything else that’s I can use that’s just as good
So good! I made a double batch so I had leftovers to take to lunch for the week. It reheated in the microwave surprisingly well.
Yummy but needs a big hit of chili pepper to finish in my opinion and I also put loads of coriander (cilantro) to finish.
Yum, thanks for the post. Before I stir fry chicken, I always dredge it in some cornstarch and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes before cooking. It makes the chicken VERY tender and thickens whatever sauce you add to pan after it has cooked for a few minutes.
Oh, hallelujah! These Hunnan chicken are the best things to come out of my hand yet! This was the easiest recipe I have tried yet. Thank you for a wonderful, fail-proof, EXCELLENT recipe that will definitely stay in my collection!
First time ever making chicken and this was great!
Delicious! I’ve tried many online recipes, but this is the first recipe worthy of a rating. It was perfect, thank you.
This recipe is amazing. My wife and I didn’t even make it to the table to sit down and eat. We stood over the skillet with our bowels. Cleared the skillet in a matter of minutes. Thank you for sharing!
This recipe is so good!
We are just having it for dinner for the second time now.
Thank you again for sharing all these delicious recipes!