General Tso’s Chicken is saucy, juicy and crispy. The signature sauce is thick and loaded with flavor. If you are a die-hard orange chicken fan, you must try this dish! Make it all in one dish in the comfort of your home for a sweet and spicy treat!
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My family loves ordering in Chinese takeout, but lately, I’ve been having a blast recreating my favorite dishes at home. Not only is this homemade copycat recipe healthier, but you’ll save money. That’s a win-win in my book. Let’s get started!
General Tso’s Chicken
General Tso’s Chicken is a Chinese-American dish of fried chicken pieces that are breaded and tossed in a tangy sauce. This dish is very similar in style to sesame or orange chicken. But, like in much of Chinese food, it’s the sauce that makes each dish unique.
Typically, General Tso’s Chicken is served with a bed of steamed rice and a side of steamed broccoli or Korean Carrot Salad. If you want to make a full spread of takeout favorites, try your hand at making some chow mein too. Don’t forget the chopsticks!
How to Make General Tso’s Sauce:
The sauce for General Tso’s chicken is so simple to make with pantry staple ingredients: rice vinegar, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, water, sugar, and some corn starch to thicken the sauce. Simply add the ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine.
How to Prepare General Tso’s Chicken
Don’t be intimidated about making your own General Tso’s Chicken! It’s so easy, you’ll never call it in again. Follow these easy steps to nail it every time:
- Cut chicken into 1-inch size cubes. Toss the chicken with corn starch.
- Cook your chicken until all sides are golden brown.
- Remove the chicken from the pan.
- Saute garlic, ginger and pepper flakes in the pan.
- Add the sauce and bring to a simmer then add chicken.
- Toss the chicken, making sure to evenly coat each piece. Serve hot to hungry people!
Tips for the Best Tso’s Chicken
- Prepare ingredients ahead of time. This recipe will have you moving fast. Prep all your ingredients ahead of time so you can add them on the fly.
- Adjust the Spice. Add more or less red pepper flakes according to your spice preference.
- Use Fresh Ginger and Garlic. It might be tempting to use the powdered stuff, but great Chinese food is defined by the freshest ingredients.
- Opt for Low Sodium Soy Sauce. I always purchase low-sodium soy sauce just in case I want to tweak the salt levels before serving. It’s just perfect for this recipe, as it also calls for hoisin, a salty, and garlicky sauce used frequently in Chinese cooking.
- Chicken Thighs Bring the Most Flavor. Chicken thighs make for the juiciest pan-fried chicken. I find chicken breast tends to be too dry for this recipe.
- Don’t Overcrowd the Pan. Cook chicken in small amounts or use a very large pan. Be sure to give the chicken a good stir here and there to prevent it from sticking.
- Use a non-stick pan. The coating can be a bit delicate, so use a non-stick to ensure it stays intact.
- Hot Tip: Serve and enjoy General Tso’s Chicken immediately. The sauce tends to absorb into the crispy outer layer, leaving it a bit soggy if it sits around too long.
More Asian-Inspired Dishes:
- Beef Stir Fry: This simple stir fry is perfect for a hectic weeknight with a sneakily high serving of veggies.
- Chicken Stir Fry – easy, saucy and loaded with veggies and cashews
- Chicken Fried Rice – a genius way to use up leftover rice and frozen vegetables
- Yakisoba Noodles: This quick-and-easy noodle dish is always on my rotation.
- Veggie Lo Mein: Your vegetarian friends will love you. These noodles are great hot or cold.
General Tso’s Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lb chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 1/4 cup extra light olive oil, for frying, plus more as needed
- 2 tbsp minced ginger, from a 2-inch piece of ginger
- 3 cloves garlic, or 1 Tbsp grated or finely minced
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or added to taste
- 1 tsp sesame seeds, optional for garnish
General Tso's Sauce
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 5 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar, or more to taste
- 1 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 4 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp corn starch
Instructions
- Cut chicken into 1-inch cubes. Toss chicken in batches with cornstarch, tapping off the excess. Set dredged chicken on a platter and set aside.
- In a separate dish, combine all the ingredients for your sauce and whisk to combine.
- Preheat a non-stick skillet with oil. Cook chicken in 2 to 3 batches, sauteeing until golden on both sides and cooked through then remove the chicken from the pan and transfer to a bowl. Repeat with the remaining chicken, adding more oil as needed. Leave at least 1 Tbsp oil in the pan.
- Add the garlic, ginger and pepper flakes. Sautee for about 30 seconds or until fragrant.
- Add the sauce to the skillet and bring it to a simmer while stirring. Let it simmer for 1 minute to cook off the vinegar a little. Taste the sauce and add more soy sauce or rice vinegar to taste if desired. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Serve garnished with sesame seeds if desired.
Nutrition Per Serving
Hi! I’m Natasha Kravchuk, a New York Times bestselling cookbook author, recipe developer, food photographer, and writer. Here you’ll find delicious, reliable recipes made with simple ingredients, plus easy step-by-step photos and videos to help you cook confidently at home. 
My hubby loves General Tso’s…when I made this, he couldn’t rave enough about it. Since the pandemic, we haven’t gone out to eat, so we both had a craving for Chinese. I’ve made other Chinese recipes, but not this one yet…ALL I CAN SAY IS IT’S EXCELLENT! Thanks for such a good recipe!
Awesome! Thank you so much for your great comments and feedback, Dar.
General Tso chicken was wonderful. It will be made frequently. Yummy!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Sonya! Thank you for the wonderful review!
We made this last night and it was delicious. I did substitute the sugar for Monk Fruit to try to cut down on my sugar intake and it came out fine. My hubby made the sauce while I did the food prep. It was amazingly fast and true restaurant quality.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that, Cathy! Thank you for your wonderful review.
I made it twice & it’s definitely my son’s favorite.
Wonderful! Thank you for your perfect rating and review, Martha.
I absolutely loved this recipe! Delicious! I made a mistake by adding more corn starch to sauce because I thought it was too thin, but I just didn’t give it enough time to thicken. I will definitely make again and follow recipe to a T. I served it over steamed broccoli & rice. This is a keeper!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
I made this for the first time tonight and was dismayed that my sauce was so runny. We followed the recipe completely, prepped everything ahead of time like always, and the sauce was too thin to coat properly. Not sure what happened, I measured everything per the recipe. It was tasty, but not a nice thick coating. How should I adjust in the future?
Hi Erika, the cornstarch is the ingredient that thickens the sauce so be sure to use the amount directed. Also, let the sauce simmer then add the chicken. The heat is what causes the sauce to thicken up.
Perhaps then the recipe should be adjusted to mention to simmer the sauce to get it to thicken, as it states that after sautéing the garlic, ginger and pepper flakes for 30 seconds, add the sauce and chicken and toss to coat, and then to serve right away. Had the recipe said to let it simmer I would have done so. Thanks for getting back to me though!
Big hit and my husband is picky very easy to make
I’m so glad he enjoyed it! That’s so great!
Sesame seeds?
Hi Lydia, I’m sorry we missed that. I added sesame seeds – they are optional and we use them as garnish.
Amazing! My husband all but licked his plate clean. He talked about how amazing and awesome it was all evening. It was fantastic and I served on basmati. Leftovers today were excellent.
Love it! Thanks to you both for trying out this recipe. I’m glad your husband really enjoyed it!
I did not like this recipe. The sauce was too thick and the dish was overall missing something, not sure what. A bit disappointed after all the work.
Hi Yuri, this has been a popular recipe on our site and I’m sorry to hear that. I would suggest reading through the recipe to see if any of the ingredients were substituted or quantities changed.
This was really yummy, and I loved that the chicken still had crispiness from being tossed in the corn starch, even after adding the sauce. (I tossed in some green beans at the end, the bright green was a beautiful contrast to the dark sauce and blanching them had them cooked but kept em crisp, and added freshness too. Hubby and kids loved it. And the flavor was spot on –no MSG needed! Another of your recipes added to my burgeoning ‘collection’! Thanks Natasha, keep em coming! 🙂
It sounds like you found a new favorite, Stephanie! Thank you so much for sharing this review with me!
Where is the orange in the recipe?.
Hi Christine, there’s no orange in this recipe, this is just similar to orange chicken but General Tso’s sauce recipe.
Overall the chicken was great. For some odd reason as soon as i added the sauce, it ruined the chicken for me! It smelled so weird and strange. Might have been the rice vinegar I’m not sure. Maybe I’m picky! Husband didn’t like the smell either. Overall the chicken was great. But the sauce was strange to me. I followed the recipe to the dot. I’m not sure what the smell was or what went wrong.
Oh no, sorry to hear that you didn’t like the sauce. I never had some problems with it and we’ve always loved the sauce. Did you change any of the ingredients by any chance?
Maybe you added too much Worcester sauce. I made that mistake the first time
General Tso’s Chicken recipe was delicious! We will definitely make this recipe again.
Hi Debbi, I am so glad you loved our General Tso’s chicken recipe. Thank you for the wonderful review.
We usually love your recipes. This one was ok but it took way longer than 30 min to put on the table. I think the times need revised.
I thought it was a bit too heavy on the vinegar. We still ate it but next time I may decrease the amount of vinegar.
Hi Lisa, did you possibly use a different type of vinegar (higher acidity)?
Hi~ I also thought it was a bit heavy in the vinegar. I did use the same rice vinegar and added 6 tablespoons. The vinegar smell and taste was a bit strong. Other than that, it was yummy~ I think I would decrease the amount of. I what next time.
Hey! This chicken is great. Loved it. Just a recommendation – the last step could be a little more clear for those who aren’t familiar with cooking. The sauce is thin and has cornstarch in it, so it needs to be simmered in the end to reduce and thicken the sauce. Simply pouring the sauce over the chicken isn’t really the last step. Hope that makes sense!
Thank you, Angelina.
Hi, I am making this tonight and was wondering how long I should cook chicken in the oil to ensure it is done? My wife is very paranoid about under cooked meat. Also how and when should I add brocolli?
Also is it ok to use olive oil to fry
We used this oil here.
Hi Tim, we use this recipe as listed and it is fully cooked. I do recommend using an instant-read thermometer!
That recipe was amazing!! My husband said that he is not going to order this anymore!!
We used chicken breasts & they were just fine. Again, thank you!
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite!
This recipe was SO EASY to make! I used chicken tenders instead of thighs and added a teaspoon of sesame oil to the sauce, but this was seriously the BEST General Tso’s I’ve ever had! Definite repeat in our house! Thank you so much, Natasha!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it Kate!
Fantastic recipe!
Thank you!
Hi Natasha, thanks for the recipe. Made it last week and my brother LOVED it and asked for more
I want to ask for the next time cooking it, would it still be okay if I top the chicken with the sauce out of the pan instead of tossing all of chicken in the pan with the sauce? Just to make sure the chicken do not soak in the sauce for long if they are not eaten right away.
Hi Kris, It is typically tossed together. That should work, but you might need to re-warm the sauce and maybe add a little water if it gets too thick as it cools.