Low Fat Baked General Tso Chicken

General Tso is one of my favorite things to order at a Chinese restaurant. I've wanted to make it for so long, but I'm partial to using the deep fryer. If I have to, I like to fry more than one recipe, per say, so that I don't have to turn it on again for a while. When I found this baked version, I nearly jumped out of my seat with excitement. Oh, and bonus points for it being low fat!

The recipe itself is a tad tricky, so bear with me - It's all worth it, trust me!

First, you're going to need 2-3 pounds of skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into strips.

Then, an egg wash consisting of 1 egg and 2 tbsp water (Pour into a plate or dish)

Flour Mixture Ingredients :

1 cup flour

½ tsp black pepper

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

3 tbsp ground ginger

2 tsp salt

Mix all these ingredients, and put into a plate or dish.

General Tso Sauce Ingredients :

4 tbsp soya sauce

4 tbsp rice wine vinegar (white wine vinegar is fine in a pinch)

¼ cup water

2 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil

2 tbsp hot chilli paste or sauce (use more or less to taste if you don’t like it very hot)

½ tsp salt

2 tsp corn starch

3 cloves minced garlic

3 tbsp freshly grated ginger

Mix all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and set this mixture aside

To boil :

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of water

Now that we've got the ingredients all figured out, lets move on to the directions.

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 medium sauce pan boil the sugar and 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 (General Tso Sauce Ingredients) a quick stir to make sure the corn starch is dissolved then add it all at once to the hot caramel.

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.