How To Make Slow Cooker General Tso’s Chicken
Serves4
The craving: General Tso’s chicken from your favorite Chinese takeout spot. The problem: You’ve got different diners eating at different times. The best solution: General Tso’s chicken from your slow cooker. Yes, you’ll be investing a little more time than dialing for takeout, but you’ll make the best General Tso’s you can at home without stir-frying and you can feed your family in shifts as they stagger in the door tired and hungry.
This slow cooker General Tso’s chicken hits all the high points of your Chinese takeout favorite — crisp golden chicken with a tender interior, coated in a glossy, spicy sweet sauce. Ready your rice and your slow cooker for this better-than-takeout slow cooker General Tso’s chicken.
What Is General Tso’s Chicken?
General Tso’s chicken is a popular Chinese-American dish of golden, crispy deep-fried chicken coated in a sweet and spicy sauce that’s often tossed with stir-fried vegetables. Since it’s a popular takeout dish, General Tso’s history has been chronicled in numerous stories and even a documentary. General Tso’s tender chicken pieces are in no small part a result of velveting the chicken before stir-frying. Here, we’ll quickly brown our chicken before slow cooking for similar — but easier — results.
Read more: The True Story Behind General Tso’s Chicken
For Your information
- You can use breast or thigh meat (or a combination) for this recipe — you’ll need 1 1/2 pounds of chicken total.
- Grab fresh ginger, garlic, and dried chiles from the market too. You’re likely to have all the other ingredients on hand already.
- The chicken cooks for 1 to 1 1/2 hours on LOW.
Making the Best Slow Cooker General Tso’s Chicken
Traditional General Tso’s chicken requires stir-frying the coated chicken in hot oil before coating it in the sauce, creating a golden, thin crust. Taking a cue from that tradition, slow cooker General Tso’s is coated in cornstarch and cooked to golden crispness in a skillet before slow cooking. This is the most important step for the best slow cooker General Tso’s chicken at home.
3 Steps for the Best General Tso Chicken
- Coat the chicken pieces in cornstarch: Cornstarch gives chicken a crust and helps thicken the sauce.
- Crisp the chicken pieces on the stovetop before slow cooking: You’ll use little oil and a large frying pan. The chicken should be golden and crisp, but it might not be cooked through. Don’t worry — it will finish cooking in the slow cooker.
- Slow cook the chicken in the General Tso’s sauce: Slow cooking gives the chicken time to soak up the flavors of the sauce while thickening into a sticky, velvety sauce that coats the chicken.
About Japones Peppers
Long, thin, red dried chile peppers called Japones peppers are best for General Tso’s chicken. They may be labeled as Hontaka, Santaka, or Oriental-style chile peppers. Although Mexican in origin, these fiery red peppers are often used in Sichuan-style cooking.
Serving Your General Tso’s Chicken
When the chicken is tender, cook up a pot of rice (or hey, reheat frozen rice) and serve your General Tso’s chicken and its cooking sauce over the rice with a sprinkling of chopped green onions. Turn your slow cooker to warm and let any straggling diners serve themselves within an hour. Then revel as they each tuck into bowls of your favorite takeout dinner, made at home.
Get the recipe: How To Cook Rice on the Stove
How To Make Slow Cooker General Tso's Chicken
Serves 4
Nutritional Info
Ingredients
For the chicken:
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
For the General Tso's sauce:
- 1/4 cup
packed light brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons
rice vinegar
- 3 tablespoons
low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon
apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon
Asian sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon
cornstarch
- 3 cloves
garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon
grated peeled fresh ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon
red pepper flakes, plus more for serving
- 6
small, dried red chile peppers, such as Japones chiles
For serving:
Cooked white rice
Thinly sliced scallions
Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Knife and cutting board
- Gallon zip-top bag
- Large nonstick skillet
- Tongs
- 6-quart slow cooker
- Spoon
- Microplane or rasp grater
- Whisk
- Mixing bowl
- Instant-read thermometer
Instructions
Coat the chicken in seasoning and cornstarch. Mix the cornstarch, salt, and pepper together in a gallon-sized zip-top bag. Add the chicken pieces, seal the bag, and shake until the chicken is well-coated.
Cook the chicken until the coating is crisp. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken in batches, making sure not to crowd the pan, and cook about 2 minutes per side. The chicken might not brown, but the cornstarch coating will become crispy and dry. The chicken will not be completely cooked at this point, and that is OK. Transfer the chicken to a 6-quart slow cooker and repeat with any remaining chicken.
Make the sauce and pour over the chicken. Whisk the sugar, rice vinegar, soy sauce, cider vinegar, sesame oil, cornstarch, garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes together in a small bowl. Pour over the chicken, then scatter the dried red chile peppers around the chicken.
Slow cook the chicken. Cover and cook until chicken reaches 165°F on an instant-read thermometer, 1 1/2 to 2 hours on the LOW setting or 45 minutes on the HIGH setting. Toss the cooked chicken with the sauce.
Serve General Tso's chicken. Serve with steamed white rice and top with sliced scallions and additional red pepper flakes if desired.