A recipe for General Tso’s style chicken in an Instant Pot. A PIP allows you to cook the rice and chicken at the same time. Reheats well.
General Tso’s Style Chicken in an Instant Pot
Course: DinnerCuisine: Asian4-6
servingsPOULTRY, less (4 minutes), high (pressure). Natural release 10 minutes.
Ingredients
- For the rice:
10.5 oz. (1½ cups) brown rice
12 oz. (1½ cups) water
¼ tsp salt
- For the chicken:
¼ cup soy sauce
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 Tbs honey
2 Tbs hoisin sauce
1 Tbs tomato paste
1 tsp dark soy sauce
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tbs olive oil
2 lbs chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small piece of ginger (1 inch), (peeled and) minced
3 Tbs rice vinegar
1 Tbs cornstarch
1 Tbs water
Sesame seeds, for garnish
Green onions, chopped, for garnish
Directions
- Add the rice to a 7-inch diameter, 3-inch deep PIP (see notes). Add the water and salt. Stir. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, sugar, honey, hoisin, tomato paste, dark soy, and pepper flakes. Set aside.
- Set the Instant Pot to SAUTÉ, more (30 minutes). When you get the “hot” indication, add oil. Wait a few seconds, then, working in 3 batches, add the chicken pieces, covering the pot with a spatter screen slightly askew. Wait until the chicken easily releases from the pot, 3 minutes, then toss and cook until chicken is nicely browned, 1 minute more. Sauté the garlic and ginger, 30 seconds. CANCEL the sauté. Add vinegar and deglaze the pan. Immediately add the soy mixture to cool down the pot.
- Transfer the chicken back into the pot and stir well. Place a tall trivet on top of the chicken. Place the PIP on the trivet. Set the Instant Pot to POULTRY, less (4 minutes), high (pressure), natural release 10 minutes.
- Use tongs in one hand and an oven mitt in the other to carefully remove the PIP and set aside. Remove the trivet. In a small bowl whisk the cornstarch and water together then pour into the chicken and stir. Reactivate the SAUTÉ function and accept its default settings. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens. CANCEL the sauté and remove inner pot from base to stop the cooking.
- Garnish the chicken with sesame seeds and green onions. Serve over rice.
Notes
- I developed this recipe for a six-quart Instant Pot. If using a different size or type of pot, you may need to make modifications.
- A “PIP” is a pot-in-pot. For more information, see this.
- Substitutions: thighs for the breasts, cider vinegar for the rice vinegar
The sauce’s texture is completely perfect. Its thick and velvety and clings to the chicken exactly the way I dreamed it would. Seriously: nailed it. And it has flavor for days. Very good leftover, microwaved. You might want to add a very small splash of water to loosen up the sauce.
Social Learning
I realize how hard it can be to find ingredients like dark soy. I don’t think that’s a dealbreaker; I think you might be able to make due with Worcestershire sauce. But if you can’t find hoisin or rice vinegar, you might need more than substitutes. You might need antidepressants.
Cooking Notes
This recipe doesn’t include the recommended amount of liquid for Instant Pot cooking. However, it worked perfectly and I did not get a “burn” indication.
Because the chicken is in chunks, by the time you’ve browned it, it’s halfway cooked, which leaves me wondering why I didn’t just make this dish on the stovetop. Except of couse I did cook the rice at the same time, which is a huge bonus.
The sauce is so thick and so flavorful that I wonder how much the browning contributes to either looks or taste. This leaves me wondering if I might skip the sauté, add the sauce ingredients to the bottom of the pot (including the oil), distribute the chicken over it, and increase the Instant Pot timing to five minutes.
The Backstory
If you’re curious about how General Tso’s Chicken became a thing, here’s an interesting NPR article. It’s considered – after reading the article, I’d say “ironically considered” – to be Hunan cuisine, and has important ties to New York City. Indeed, when I lived in New York, Hunan was quite popular. You’d see Hunan restaurants everywhere. But I’d always have to do a double-take, because it always registered as “Human” in my mind, and I’d think, “A human restaurant?” I always wanted to go in and say, in my best rotobic voice, “Please dispense human food.” But I worried that these restaurants might actually be alien outposts, and I could be getting myself into some serious trouble. I mean, they sky’s the limit in terms of what goes on in New York.
General Tso’s Style Chicken in an Instant Pot
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. Thank you, Kesor. Thank you, ⌘+C. References: Jo Cooks. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #13 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs.
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