Hunan Chicken Better Than Chinese Takeout

Published Mar 12, 2019 Updated Sep 03, 2024 Hunan Chicken was my favorite Chinese takeout back in the early 2000’s when I was working in San Francisco. I would always order the tender chicken, stir-fried with carrot, broccoli, black fungus in a mouthwatering spicy Hunan sauce. The chicken breast pieces were always silky, tender, velvety, and the sauce was absolutely addictive and delicious with steamed white rice. Fast forward many years later, I constantly miss the dish so I decided to develop a homemade Hunan Chicken recipe.

Tips On How To Make Hunan Chicken

To make sure that every single bite of the chicken is tender and soft, slice the chicken breasts into pieces and marinate the chicken with egg white and corn starch. This process is called velveting in Chinese cooking, which ensures that the chicken is tender just like Chinese restaurants. Cut the vegetables in the recipe into uniform-sized pieces. This will ensure they cook evenly during stir-frying. Mix the Hunan sauce.

Hunan Sauce

Hunan sauce consists of the following key ingredients with the secret ingredient being chili bean sauce or “Douban Jiang” (豆瓣酱), which is made from chili peppers and fermented soy bean paste.

Bottled chili bean sauce or douban jiang Chicken broth Soy sauce Oyster sauce Ketchup Vinegar

The sauce should be savory with a nice heat from the chili bean sauce. It’s also slightly sour from the ketchup and vinegar. You can mix and make the Hunan sauce in advance as you can freeze it in the refrigerator and use it whenever you want to make this recipe.

Hunan Chicken Vs Szechuan Chicken

Many people are confused with the difference between Hunan Chicken and Szechuan (the correct spelling is “Sichuan”) chicken. Both dishes are completely different. Hunan and Sichuan are two different provinces in China. Hunan cuisine is vastly different from Sichuan food even though both are spicy. The spiciness of Hunan food stems from the used of the spicy douban jiang or the chili bean sauce. Sichuan food uses a lot of dried red chilies and Sichuan peppercorns. This is a healthy dish as there are a variety of vegetables.

What To Serve With Hunan Chicken

For a wholesome Chinese dinner, make the following dishes. I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please leave a comment and consider giving it a 5-star rating. For more easy and delicious recipes, explore my Recipe Index, and stay updated by subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.