General Tso’s Chicken & Green Beans

We’ve got a bumper crop of green beans this year.  Fortunately my husband staggered the planting so they are not all ripening at once!

I have been going through all my stand by green bean recipes and trying out a few new ones too.

A couple of our favorites are:

Pan Seared Green Beans – had these this week and I had forgotten how yummy they are!

Tropical Green Beans

Last week was my husband’s birthday so I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner.  His usual response is “I like anything you make.” And then I will ask him to be a little more specific and he will say, “chicken” and then a little more specific and I got “stir fry”.

So, I had been wanting to try this recipe for General Tso’s Chicken I found over at this blog.  The recipe is gluten free if using gluten free soy sauce.

The recipe called for snow peas but since I had an abundance of green beans I decided to use those.

The dish was a total hit with everyone and I think my husband mentioned three or four times during dinner how much he liked it!  It was great with fresh green beans.  I think next time I may try it with snow peas or maybe even asparagus.  Something green!

General Tso’s is traditionally a fairly spicy dish.  You can moderate the heat in this recipe with your amount of red pepper flakes.  The sauce is a combination of sweet and spicy – perfect.

The chicken is also lightly breaded with egg whites and cornstarch so there is no heavy coating.

General Tso’s Chicken

Printable Recipe

Adapted from Martha Stewart

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 lb green beans,snow peas, or asparagus  trimmed and halved crosswise

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and minced

3 Tablespoon light-brown sugar

2 Tablespoon Soy Sauce

1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

2 large egg whites

Salt & Pepper

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

In a large bowl, stir together 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1/2 cup cold water until smooth and cornstarch has dissolved. Add snow peas (or green beans), garlic, ginger, sugar,  soy sauce and 1/2 teaspoon of red-pepper flakes; toss to combine and set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the egg whites, remaining 3 tablespoons cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Add chicken, toss to coat.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Lift half of the chicken from the egg white mixture (shaking off excess) and add to skillet. Cook, turning occasionally, until golden (8-10 minutes). Transfer to a plate; repeat with remaining oil and chicken, adding red pepper flakes. Set aside, reserving skillet.

Add the green bean mixture to the skillet. Cover; cook until beans are tender and sauce has thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Return chicken to skillet (with any juices); toss to coat.

Serve over hot rice.