Leftover General Tsao Sauce (chicken, sugar, cayenne, ginger)

[oregonwoodsmoke]

When I make General Tsao's chicken, I always double or tripled the sauce recipe, to ensure we have a generous amount of sauce.


Last night I used the leftover to grill pork chops. Nice loin chops cut from a whole loin roast. Grill until almost done and then brush with the General Tsao's sauce and finish cooking, Very tasty.


General Tsao's sauce, as written:


2T vegetable oil
3 T chopped green onion
1 clove garlic, minced
6 dried whole red chilies
1 strip orange zest


1/2 C white sugar
1/4 t ground ginger
3 T chicken broth
1 T rice vinegar
1/4 C soy sauce
2 t sesame oil
2 t peanut oil


2 t cornstarch
1/4 C cold water


1. heat 2 T oil and saute the onion, chilies, and orange zest.


2. Add sugar, ginger, broth, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, peanut oil


3. bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes


4. dissolve cornstarch into cold water and stir into boiling sauce. cook until thickened.




Cooks notes: I don't add the green onion until the end. I like it fresh


I use Korean pepper paste, Rooster sauce, or cayenne instead of the dried red chilies. A sprinkle of dried red pepper flakes look good in the sauce.



I use fresh ginger root instead of ginger powder and saute it with the chilies.


I've used tangerine instead of orange and that is excellent. I've also added a squeeze of tangerine juice to the sauce and that was a success.



I use white vinegar instead if rice vinegar which I don't normally keep on hand.