Name: Instant Pot General Tso Chicken
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 600 g chicken thighs, boneless, cut into 3 cm pieces; 2 tbsp cornflour, plus 1 tbsp for the sauce; 1 tbsp vegetable oil; 4 tbsp soy sauce; 3 tbsp rice vinegar; 3 tbsp light brown sugar; 2 tbsp hoisin sauce; 3 garlic cloves, crushed; 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated; 4 dried red chillies; 120 ml chicken stock; 2 spring onions, sliced; 1 tsp sesame seeds

Instant Pot General Tso Chicken

Bite-sized chicken pieces cooked under pressure in a sweet, tangy soy and chilli sauce, thickened and served with broccoli.

30 min total Serves 4 servings Medium

Make Ahead and Storage

Keeps for 3 days in the fridge. Reheat in a pan with a splash of water.

Making Instant Pot General Tso Chicken

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Toss the chicken in 2 tbsp cornflour. Set the Instant Pot to sauté and brown the chicken in the oil for 4 minutes.
Add the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, hoisin, garlic, ginger, chillies and stock and stir, scraping the base.
Seal and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. Release the pressure quickly.
Select sauté. Mix 1 tbsp cornflour with 2 tbsp cold water, stir it in and simmer for 1 minute until glossy.
Scatter with spring onions and sesame seeds and serve.

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Worth Knowing

Coat the chicken in cornflour for the glossy texture.
Thicken the sauce only after releasing the pressure.
Remove the chillies if you want less heat.

Behind the Recipe

Why does takeaway General Tso chicken taste so different from most home versions? It is the sauce, a balance of salty, sweet, sour and hot that is thick enough to cling to each piece. This pressure cooker version builds that sauce in the pot, and skips the deep frying.

The chicken is cut into 3 cm pieces and tossed in cornflour before browning. That thin coat helps it hold the sauce and gives the surface a velvety texture. Thigh meat is richer and more forgiving than breast, and holds up well to the sauce.

Thicken at the end, with the lid off. The sauce of soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, hoisin, garlic, ginger and dried chilli is thin when it is pressure cooked. A slurry of cornflour and cold water stirred into the simmering sauce turns it glossy in about a minute.

Serve the chicken over steamed rice with steamed broccoli, and add the sesame seeds and spring onions at the last second so that they keep their crunch.

Good Alongside

Steamed rice · Steamed broccoli · Egg fried rice · Pak choi

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Vegan Fried Rice.

Common Substitutions & Variations

Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the red chillies. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.