General Tso chicken sauce
General Tso’s Chicken Sauce Sauce is the perfect blend of sweet, savory, and sometimes spicy flavors. Also, it’s very easy to do. Put all ingredients in a bowl and stir. That’s it. The recipe below makes enough sauce to coat the chicken but not so much that it drowns the chicken and makes it mushy, which I find all too common in Chinese takeaway restaurants.
Here’s what you’ll need to prepare the General Tso sauce:
Chicken Broth – The base for the sauce. Any broth will do, including bone broth. If none is available, replace with water.
Rice Vinegar – Provides a nice note of spice. You can replace it with regular white vinegar.
Light Soy Sauce and Hoisin Sauce – Our two main umami salty flavors.
Sugar – To balance out the salty flavors of hoisin and soy sauce. I’m using granulated cane sugar here, but you can use brown sugar too.
Chili paste or fresh chilies — For a spicy kick. You can omit this if you’re making this for children or the kid in you that can’t stand the heat.
Sesame Oil – Provides a nutty flavor.
Cornstarch – Helps thicken the sauce.
Ginger and Garlic – Our signature Asian flavors we can’t live without. Don’t put that in the sauce yet. Leave this out of the sauce so we can sauté the ginger and garlic in some vegetable oil to bring out their flavor.