Easy General Tso's Chicken (2024)

1 pound green beans, trimmed

7 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

2¼ teaspoons kosher salt, divided

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, breasts, or a mix, patted dry, cut into 1" chunks

¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon honey

¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce

1 large garlic clove, finely grated

3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar

1 tablespoon Sriracha

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon finely grated ginger

6 (or more) dried whole red chiles, such as chiles de árbol

1 scallion, thinly sliced

Cooked rice (for serving)

Make this meal gluten-free by substituting tamari for the soy sauce. If you can't find whole dried chiles, substitute ¼ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes.

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Reviews (102)

• I have made this dish many times and it is always delicious. It is very easy and the directions are excellent.

  • Anonymous

  • Boston

  • 9/21/2023

• it was great with a few modifiers. I added Thai chili powder, and I also used a bit more garlic and ginger. this helped cut the sweetness and add more flavor.

  • Saturn

  • Ohio

  • 12/5/2022

• We found this bland and sweet, but it's probably great for families. I'd somehow never had General Tso's chicken before, so I'm guessing I dislike the dish rather than this particular recipe.

  • Anonymous

  • 7/28/2022

• Fabulous recipe. Better than take out for sure. Made this several times. I prefer it without the tomato paste, sauce seems "heavy" with it. If I need to feed more people and make it more substantial, I remove the chicken and then add the sauce ingredients to the pan and some thinly sliced carrots, frozen peas and/or frozen edamame beans and simmer until the carrots are cooked. I should really boil the vegetables while the chicken is cooking to save time! I don't add too many veg just to make sure I have enough sauce by the time I add the chicken back to the pan to reheat. Serving it with Basmati rice is a must! Like previous reviewers mentioned, it takes much longer to prep and complete than the 22 minutes it states.

  • Anonymous

  • Vancouver, BC

  • 12/6/2021

• This recipe is fabulous! All three diners thought it tasted like restaurant quality, and we’re so excited to make it again. Definitely not 22 minutes though; with ingredient prep, it probably took me 1-1.5 hours on the first try. Like another reviewer said, I expect it will take an hour now that I know what to expect. Next time, I’ll reduce the whole chilis de árbol from 6 to 4 so we don’t need quite so much rice to temper its heat. I could see adding vegetables like cauliflower to the chicken too; the sauce it so good that you just want to smother everything in it. Peanuts and bell peppers would take this in a saucy kung pao chicken direction, for example. The roasted green beans make a great simple side though!

  • MH

  • Washington, DC

  • 11/23/2021

• This is one of our favorite family recipes. It's hard to go back to take out since this is so much better! My only complaint is that it's advertised as 22 minutes and its not. We usually make this on weekends since the frying of the chicken in batches is tedious and messy. It takes us about 1 hour to make this start to finish. It's written that you can basically do everything while the chicken is frying - certainly a logistical feat in 22 minutes, even with everything mise-en-place and ready to go. That being said, you need to make this recipe - it's one of my Epicurious favorites and I've been cooking from this site for over 20 years.

  • aweber73

  • Sparks, MD

  • 3/16/2021

• Good recipe for the limited ingredients. It’s a little too heavy and sweet for me but kids love it.

  • mariamariamaria

  • North carolina

  • 12/30/2020