Recipe - Threshold Of Pain Kung Pao Chicken

1 pound Boneless chicken breast (I
actually like thighs in
this; too), cubed
One half cup Whole Chinese hot dried red
peppers; stemmed
One half cup Roasted peanuts
1 tablespoon Fresh ginger; crushed and
minced
1 tablespoon Fresh garlic; crushed and
minced

MARINADE
1 One half tablespoon Cornstarch
1 tablespoon Cold water
1 tablespoon Soy sauce

SAUCE
2 tablespoon Soy sauce
1 tablespoon Mirin (rice wine)
1 tablespoon Sesame oil
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Cornstarch
1 teaspoon White vinegar
Peanut oil for frying

GARNISH
4 Scallions; cut or sliced up into rings
2 Fresh red and
2 Green hot "finger" chiles
(e.g. long Thai); cut or sliced up
into rings

Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996 13:09:00 0400 (EDT)

From: Larry Hunter hunter@intr.net
About 15 years ago, the first restaurant with genuinely spicy food arrived
in lovely New Haven, CT (where I was going to college). It was officially
called "Threshold", although we all called it "Threshold of Pain". They
sold Schezwan food at 1 through 5 "alarms". When you ordered Kung Pao
chicken at 5 alarm (which I did often), there were more chiles than peanuts
in the dish. Unfortunately, the restaurant folded in less than a year.

Here's an attempt to recreate that 5 alarm recipe. It needs to be scaled
up to restaurant portions, but it's not a difficult dish. You can reduce
the amount of dried chile to reduce the heat level to mainstream levels if
absolutely necessary.

Make the marinade: Mix all ingredients and stir to dissolve cornstarch. Add
chicken and marinate 30 minutes or longer. Mix sauce and set aside. Heat
a bit peanut oil in the wok until just shy of smoking. Add chicken and stir
fry until it is cooked and turns white. Remove and set aside. Add more oil
to the wok, and reheat until almost smoking. Stir fry red peppers until
they are crisp and start to turn black. Add ginger and garlic and stir fry
for about 10 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the sauce, stirring
constantly until slightly thickened. Add the chicken and stir until tyhe
chicken is heated through and the sauce is thick. Remove from heat and stir
in the peanuts.

Serve over white rice, garnished with chile and scallion slices.

CHILEHEADS DIGEST V3 #007

From the ChileHeads recipe list. Downloaded from Glen's MM Recipe
Archive, http://www.erols.com/hosey.