Published April 23, 2007.
Tired of dull, gloppy restaurant renditions of the restaurant classic, we set out to develop a kung pao recipe of our own. We stir-fried marinated chicken, then added small whole red chiles and peanuts. The chiles gave our dish some fire, and toasting the peanuts deepened their flavor. Finding other vegetables to be superfluous, we added diced red pepper. For a potently flavored, syrupy sauce for our kung pao recipe, we used a mixture of chicken broth, black rice vinegar, Asian sesame oil, oyster-flavored sauce, hoisin sauce, and cornstarch.
While we prefer this dish made with chicken thighs rather than breasts because the dark meat has richer flavor and is less prone to drying out, if you prefer, you can replace the thighs with chicken breasts. You can substitute plain rice vinegar for the black rice vinegar (available in Asian markets), but we prefer the latter for its fruity, salty complexity.
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