Recipes By Fuchsia Dunlop
1 recipe found
General Tso’s Chicken
General Tso’s chicken is named for Tso Tsung-t’ang, a 19th-century general who is said to have enjoyed eating it. The Hunanese have a strong military tradition, and Tso is one of their best-known historical figures. But although many Chinese dishes are named after famous personages, there is no record of any dish named after Tso. The real roots of the recipe lie in the aftermath of the Chinese civil war, when the leadership of the defeated Nationalist Party fled to the island of Taiwan. They took with them many talented people, including a number of notable chefs, and foremost among them was Peng Chang-kuei. He created this dish in 1950s Taiwan, and brought it with him when he moved to the states in 1973, making it sweeter for American palates. This version is adapted from the original, hot and sour and lacking the sweetness of its Americanized counterpart.