Yummy Kung Pao Chicken

I made kung pao chicken last night, and it was the best ever. Here are some tricks I found.

My version of Kung Pao has a lot of vegetables - why not take advantage of cooking at home and put all of our favorite things in one dish?

Cube the following veggies:

1 green pepper,

1 red pepper,

1 jalapeno,

some celeries,

some mushrooms,

1 onion,

mince garlic (as always),

Cube some chicken, making sure to trim the fat.

Cooking steps:

1. (Trick #1) Stir-fried the vegetables with peanut oil, but don't cook them too well. Place the cooked vegetables in a bowl, then clean the wok.
2. (Trick #2) Stir-fried the chicken meat, making sure the chicken is well done.
3. Mix the vegetables and chicken together and spice with salt, pepper, kung pao sauce (Lee Kum Kee brand), and spicy sauce to taste.
4. (Trick #3) Heat some hot oil in a small frying pan in medium heat, then add some chilly flakes and a handful of peanuts to the frying pan. Cook the peanuts for 5 seconds.
5. Mix the peanuts with the chicken.

The good thing about cooking this way is, the vegetable is not over cook, and adding the spiced peanuts would add extra spice to the dish. Also, don't cook the garlic for too long, add it in on step 3.

Since Jack helped on the peanuts and he enjoyed the food a lot, he insisted it was our kung pao. I think it is good for him to have a sense of ownership to this dish.