First of all, who is General Tso and why are we eating his chicken? A little history lesson can be found here but to summarize it was created by a chef named Peng Chang-kuei. Chef Peng ran a successful restaurant in Taiwan. At some point in the 1950s, Peng created a dish and named it in honor of General Tso. “Originally the flavors of the dish were typically Hunanese — heavy, sour, hot and salty,” he said.
In the early 70s two rival chefs from New York City, David Keh and T.T. Wang, both flew to Taiwan for menu inspiration, and both ended up at Chef Peng’s restaurant. Unbeknownst to each other, the two men sampled Chef Peng’s homage to General Tso, among his many other creative dishes. In 1971, upon returning to New York and within weeks of each other, each opened a Chinese restaurant with menus that nearly mirrored Peng’s.
Shortly after, in 1973, Chef Peng himself arrived in New York, ready to try his own hand in the city. But with Keh and Wang already having won four-star reviews in the New York Times, Peng’s version of the dish seemed like a copy of theirs, rather than the other way around. Although Peng’s restaurant on 44th Street was also a success, he could not win back the dish now known as General Tso’s chicken – a lightly battered chicken smothered in a chili-laced sweet and sour sauce.
So, in the grand tradition of changing up Chef Peng’s recipe (kidding – kind of) here is a lightened up version from Fed & Fit that is baked or air fried instead of deep fried. You can always opt to buy the sauce at the store but I’d caution that Fed & Fit makes some of the best sauces of any recipe blogger I’ve come across, so if you have time, give it a shot!