Kung Pao Chicken (Full Sichuan Method)

Kung Pao chicken — diced chicken stir-fried with dried chillies, Sichuan peppercorn, peanuts, and a sweet-sour-spicy sauce — is one of China's most famous preparations and one of its most misunderstood abroad. The global imitation version is typically sweet, gloopy, and bears little relation to the authentic Sichuan preparation, which is dry, intensely spicy, fragrant with hua jiao numbing quality, and balanced between the heat of the chillies, the sweetness of the sauce, and the textural contrast of crunchy peanuts. The authentic preparation requires velveting the chicken (coating with cornstarch, egg white, and Shaoxing wine, then blanching briefly in oil) to achieve the silky, never-rubbery texture that distinguishes restaurant-quality Chinese chicken from home versions. The sauce — soy, rice vinegar, sugar, and chicken stock — is prepared in advance and poured in at the precise moment.