Low Fat Baked General Tso's Chicken
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General Tso's Chicken is a favourite Chinese take out dish that you can make even better at home & with less fat than the deep fried version. One of our TOP TEN recipes ever.
Originally published March 31, 2009.
A favourite Chinese take out dish that you can make even better at home and with less fat than the deep fried version. This recipe has received many great reviews from readers who have tried it.
The real secret to this General Tso's Chicken sauce is getting the caramel base correct, once you master that the rest is a breeze. I have had many readers tell me over the years that this recipe is better than any restaurant version they've ever tried.
Making the sauce for General Tso Chicken
Here's a short video which shows what the caramel should look like before you add the rest of the ingredients.
You can see why it is so important to do this with care. The caramel is so very hot and the addition of the other ingredients causes a big release of steam. This all calms down rather quickly but take care not to cause a burn.
April 2020 Update to include a new print page and demonstration video.
If you liked this recipe you may also like to try our General Tso Chicken Wings.
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Low Fat Baked General Tso Chicken
Low Fat Baked General Tso Chicken - a favorite Chinese take out dish that you can make even better at home and with less fat than the deep fried version. This recipe has received many great reviews from readers who have tried it.
Ingredients
- 2 -3 pounds boneless chicken thighs or breasts, cut in strips
- 1 egg + 2 tablespoon water whisked together to make an egg wash
- 1 cup flour
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper cayenne pepper
- 3 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoon soy sauce
- 4 tablespoon rice wine vinegar, white wine vinegar is fine in a pinch
- ¼ cup water water
- 2 tablespoon toasted sesame seed oil
- 2 tablespoon hot chilli paste or sauce, use more or less to taste if you don’t like it very hot
- ½ teaspoon salt salt
- 2 teaspoon corn starch
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- 3 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- Combine the 1 cup flour, ½ teaspoon black pepper, ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, 3 tablespoon ground ginger, 2 teaspoon salt.
- Dip the chicken pieces in the egg wash then dredge them in the flour mixture.
- Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and lightly drizzle or the tops with a little more olive oil.
- Bake at 375 degrees F for about 25-3o minutes. Flip the pieces at half way through the cooking time.
- While the chicken is baking, prepare your sauce. Don’t walk away from this sauce; it gets very hot when making the caramel base and can burn easily so pay careful attention while cooking it.
- In a small bowl, mix together the 4 tablespoon soya sauce, 4 tablespoon rice wine vinegar, ¼ cup water, 2 tablespoon toasted sesame seed oil, 2 tablespoon hot chilli paste or sauce, ½ teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoon corn starch, 3 cloves minced garlic and 3 tablespoon freshly grated ginger. Set this mixture aside.
- In a medium saucepan boil together the 1 cup of sugar and ¼ cup of water.
- Boil this over medium heat, watching constantly until the caramel starts to turn a light amber color and you can begin to smell the caramel. When it reaches this stage, give the other ingredients in the bowl a quick stir to make sure the corn starch is dissolved then add it all at once to the hot caramel. (Careful: This mixture is very hot!)
- Be careful at this stage because this sauce can foam up considerably for a few seconds and it is very hot. Simmer for only few minutes and remove from the heat and allow to cool down slightly.
- Toss the sauce with the cooked chicken pieces and serve over plain steamed rice or Chinese noodles.
Notes
-
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
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Rock Recipes a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Our product recommendations are almost exclusively for those we currently use or have used in the past.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1 servingAmount Per Serving Calories 470Total Fat 11gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 7gCholesterol 130mgSodium 572mgCarbohydrates 42gFiber 1gSugar 34gProtein 49g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
Made this for dinner tonight, absolutely loved it my only complaint would be that I had enough sauce for all my chicken but not enough for extra glaze on top of the rice!
Will definitely make again and maybe make more of the sauce.
Does anyone know the calorie count and other nutritional facts for this recipe?
Hi Barry, I found this recipe on Pinterest and made it for dinner last night - DELICIOUS! Thank you. I have bookmarked your blog and look forward to checking in regularly - especially if all your food is as good as this one recipe 🙂
Just wondering if anyone figured out how much per serving the calories are and how many servings this makes. I did make it though and it was excellent!!
For some reason my caramel didn't really come out- it was looking great at first, but just as it seemed like it was going to start to brown, instead it sort of dried up, and it was like the sugar wasn't even melted. Does anyone know why this happened?
I had trouble with the caramel stuff. Made it twice and both times cooked it too long almost to the hard candy stage. The third time I mixed the sugar and water and all the other ingredients plus an extra tbsp of cornstarch. Then I boiled it for a little over a minute, stirring constantly, and let it cool. It wa the right consistency and tasted great. I really like this recipe except I just couldn't get the caramel stuff right but my modification worked just fine.
Made this last night- it was awesome!! I think my sauce was a teensy bit watery, but I'll definitely, definitely be making this again as a part of our regular monthly meals.
Thank you so much for posting this! I made this for my husband for his birthday. He has soy, wheat, and peanut allergies and can no longer eat Chinese, and he was missing it terribly. With the discovery of Coconut Amino and some rice flour I was able to produce a safe version for him that tasted great!
I made this recipe using stevia in place of sugar and it was crazy good with a fraction of the carbs.
This was spicy & delicious! I think I did something wrong, though because my sauce was runny too, not glazelike. I will make again!
I had a challenge with the caramel sauce as well. The water evaporated and left me with dried sugar. I added more water twice, and then more sugar. It still didn't turn to caramel and made more of a sugar sauce than a sticky sauce. Any ideas?
Sounds to me like you are boiling this too fast on too high a heat setting. Try simmering it at a lower setting. Don't stir the caramel, this can cause crystallization.
I made this tonight. I added a bit of Mirin so it had a touch of sweetness, and while it was pretty spicy it was GOOD! My family and I are all foodies (the kids are 10 and 13)...we crave big flavor and this fit the bill! I expected the sauce to thicken a bit more but it did not. I suspect next time I will add a cornstarch slurry. But we all liked it! Thanks for the recipe!
I really liked this recipe! I might use a little less fresh ginger in the sauce next time but overall this one is a keeper.
This was yummy!