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
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un ensemble bien appétissant
bonne soirée
Thank you!
As far as I know General Tso’s chicken isn’t a thing in Australia. While Australia and the US have a similar evolution of Chinese cuisine from immigrants General Tso’s chicken is mostly known here from situation comedy TV from the USA.
That’s so interesting. And it’s one of the reasons that I love getting to exchange information with people like you, from other parts of the world. I guess that’s one benefit of the internet that I don’t often take the time to appreciate, while I’m spending most of my time hating the horrors of the internet. Anyway, it’s always dood tha healthy to know that something you think ubiquitous is only common in your part of the world. It reminds you that the world is a bigger place.
General Tso’s Chicken very definitely is not ‘a thing’ in Australia and the name leads one directly to think of US type Chinese cooking.
I wonder if one could simply reduce regular soy sauce to create dark soy sauce? I’m obviously not familiar with the process in making the dark, but it makes sense?! Great dish. Love the ingredients!
That’s a great question. I read a lot of recipes that call for both regular soy sauce and dark, and I think, come on, that’s got to be so esoteric. But then I did some looking around on the internet – and you know that not much good ever comes of that – and I saw that people didn’t seem to recommend regular soy sauce as a substitute for dark. They seemed to recommend Worchestershire instead. You know, I’ve got them both in my fridge right now. I should do a taste test.
OK, so I did my taste test. First of all, they don’t smell the same at all. The dark smells like molasses. And they also don’t taste the same. The regular soy – I can’t believe that I’ve never tasted it on its own before, since I’ve been using it for decades. But it tastes obviously salty and umami and like something I can understand. The dark, good God, I was so sorry I tasted it on its own. It’s very, very different from the regular soy sauce. Different flavor profile. Kind of like a combination of fish sauce and Worchestershire. But although it seems revolting on its own – at least to me – it does taste good in food. Kind of like the way some people feel about anchovies, I guess.
Molto invitante questo riso lo proverò grazie!!!!
Thank you!
I have a brand new Instant pot and tried food in it twice but we didn’t care for it. My cousin swears by her instant pot. Your food looks fantastic in yours!!! General Tso’s chicken is one of my favorite ways to eat chicken.
I’ve found mine to be useful. Try making rice in it, and see what you think. I’m sure it also depends on the quality of the recipe. I’ve got some pretty good ones on my blog, I think. But of course I realize that the contraption might not be for everyone, and I was had no problems cooking for most of my life without one!
Un pollo completamente lleno en sabor ♥
Thanks!
Interesting – I didn’t know there was regular soy sauce and the dark one – all varieties look quite the same to me 🙂
And needles to say, this chicken sounds like a delish meal!
Thanks, Ben! Yeah, I didn’t know either, but I live near to an Asian neighborhood, so I was able to find some there.
I’d love to try this chicken recipe that looks wonderful!
Thank you, Javier!
Hola Jeff. El pollo es una de las carnes que más utilizo y hecha de esta manera con esa salsa tan deliciosa, el plato tiene que estar fabuloso.
Una extraordinaria propuesta.
Un abrazo.
Thank you, Juan!
Interesante receta y muy, muy bien explicada. Gracias por visitarme, un abrazo
Thank you, Pilar!
I love everything about this recipe and have it on the menu this week!
Nice!
this sounds so tasty Jeff. I like those flavours and i love chicken. I didn’t know that soy sauce and dark soy were so different.
cheers
sherry
Neither did I! Thanks!
This was such a fun read! Loved how you captured the sauce’s perfection—thick, velvety, and packed with flavor. And that bit about Worcestershire vs. dark soy had me laughing! The “human restaurant” line is gold, I’d have had the same reaction.
Thanks, Raymund!
I am grateful for my Instant Pot everyday because I use it every day. My husband always orders a dish called Hunan Chicken at our local Chinese restaurant .. It’s his favorite. I am a fan of Gen Tso tofu!! So you used to live in New York- so did I… I’m sure my husband would love this dish!
We probably passed one another in Times Square!