General Tso's Chicken - Spicy & Sour Chicken

This is sort of reminiscent of sweet and sour pork, only the method of marinating is different plus it doesn't have any sweetness to it. This is from Fushia Dunlop's Hunan dishes book and finally, a way to use tomato puree besides using it in bolognaise sauce :)

Ingredients - Serves 2 as a main dish

4 chicken thighs or fillet about 340g

6-10 dried chili - cut into halves with most seeds discarded

2 teaspoon finely chopped ginger

2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic

2 teaspoon sesame seed oil

Enough oil for deep frying

Marinade for the chicken

2 teaspoon light soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoon potato flour

2 teaspoon oil

For the sauce

1 tablespoon tomato puree, mixed with 1 tablespoon water

1/2 teaspoon potato flour

1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce

1.5 teaspoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon clear rice vinegar

3 tablespoon stock or water

Steps

1. Slice the chicken meat into bit size about 0.5cm in thickness and stir in the marinade, adding the potato flour last. Set it aside.
2. Prepare the sauce ingredients in a separate bowl and set aside and heat up the oil for deep frying.
3. Add the chicken when it is hot enough and deep fry until it is crisp and golden. Remove them and set aside.
4. Leave about 2-3 tablespoon of oil in the pan, make sure its not too hot and add the dry chili. Fry until you can smell the fragrance (takes just a few seconds), add in the ginger and garlic and stir fry for another 10 seconds until fragrant. Add in the sauce and stir as it thickens.
5. Return the chicken to the wok and coat it evenly with the sauce, remove from heat and stir in the sesame seed oil before serving.