Low Fat Baked General Tso's Chicken - in our Top 10 recipes! (2024)

General Tso’s Chicken is a favourite Chinese take out dish that you can make even better at home & with less fat than the deep fried version. One of our TOP TEN recipes ever.

General Tso Chicken

A favourite Chinese take out dish that you can make even better at home and with less fat than the deep fried version. This recipe has received many great reviews from readers who have tried it.

Original 2009 photo.

The real secret to this General Tso’s Chicken sauce is getting the caramel base correct, once you master that the rest is a breeze. I have had many readers tell me over the years that this recipe is better than any restaurant version they’ve ever tried.

Remove the skin & trim all of the visible fat from the chicken thighs and they are almost as lean as breast meat and more budget friendly too. I also think they have more flavour than breast meat and easier not to overcook.

Making the sauce for General Tso Chicken

Here’s a short video which shows what the caramel should look like before you add the rest of the ingredients.

You can see why it is so important to do this with care. The caramel is so very hot and the addition of the other ingredients causes a big release of steam. This all calms down rather quickly but take care not to cause a burn.

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Low Fat Baked General Tso Chicken

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Low Fat Baked General Tso Chicken - a favorite Chinese take out dish that you can make even better at home and with less fat than the deep fried version. This recipe has received many great reviews from readers who have tried it.

Ingredients

2 -3 pounds boneless chicken thighs or breasts, cut in strips
1 egg + 2 tbsp water whisked together to make an egg wash
1 cup flour
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp cayenne pepper cayenne pepper
3 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp rice wine vinegar, white wine vinegar is fine in a pinch
¼ cup water water
2 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil
2 tbsp hot chilli paste or sauce, use more or less to taste if you don’t like it very hot
½ tsp salt salt
2 tsp corn starch
3 cloves minced garlic
3 tbsp freshly grated ginger
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

Instructions

Combine the 1 cup flour, ½ tsp black pepper, ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, 3 tbsp ground ginger, 2 tsp salt.
Dip the chicken pieces in the egg wash then dredge them in the flour mixture.
Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and lightly drizzle or the tops with a little more olive oil.
Bake at 375 degrees F for about 25-3o minutes. Flip the pieces at half way through the cooking time.
While the chicken is baking, prepare your sauce. Don’t walk away from this sauce; it gets very hot when making the caramel base and can burn easily so pay careful attention while cooking it.
In a small bowl, mix together the 4 tbsp soya sauce, 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar, ¼ cup water, 2 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil, 2 tbsp hot chilli paste or sauce, ½ tsp salt, 2 tsp corn starch, 3 cloves minced garlic and 3 tbsp freshly grated ginger. Set this mixture aside.
In a medium saucepan boil together the 1 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of water.
Boil this over medium heat, watching constantly until the caramel starts to turn a light amber color and you can begin to smell the caramel. When it reaches this stage, give the other ingredients in the bowl a quick stir to make sure the corn starch is dissolved then add it all at once to the hot caramel. (Careful: This mixture is very hot!)
Be careful at this stage because this sauce can foam up considerably for a few seconds and it is very hot. Simmer for only few minutes and remove from the heat and allow to cool down slightly.
Toss the sauce with the cooked chicken pieces and serve over plain steamed rice or Chinese noodles.

Notes

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.